Judge addresses ‘element of humanity'

An eSwatini High Court judge has made unusually strong and poignant remarks about the prevalence of gender-based violence and its impact on women. Sentencing a 36-year-old man for the murder of his girlfriend, the judge said that when such murderers were unmasked, they should be removed from society for a long time and only be permitted to return ‘when the element of humanity has been restored to their characters’. Carmel Rickard in her A Matter of Justice report on the Legalbrief site, notes that she added that there were daily reports of domestic and gender-based violence in eSwatini, and that the courts had to play a role in fighting this scourge by handing down appropriate sentences.