Justice For Lufuno Mavhunga and May Her Beautiful Soul Rest in Eternal Peace.

I’ll start off by saying may Lufuno Mavhunga’s beautiful soul rest in perfect, harmonious peace.

My sister and I are self-proclaimed bullying “advocates”, there’s honestly nothing we hate more than any form of bullying. I believe everyone felt exactly how I felt, as a rush of disgust, shock and loathe towards the attacker took over my body when I clicked the play button and witnessed the vile behavior being showcased by pupils.

It was heavy and taxing taking a pen and a paper, sitting down and writing this particular article. Lufuno Mavhunga was a beautiful 15 year old girl that seemed like a person with a calm demeanor and with her bright future ahead of her, but a pupil took all that away from her and her family not only by physically attacking her but by meddling with her mental health in the process.

Mental health is a topic that’s still shunned or seen as a taboo in black households. It’s time to educate ourselves and to be fully aware of the these mental health issues.

According to Legal Defense, the law defines bullying as, “intimidating, threatening, abusive or harmful conduct” which can range from offensive words to physical violence (Lufuno was subjected to both) and others. Bullying does not only lead to emotional abuse and mental health issues, it also leads to serious injuries and even death. Which is exactly what happened in this particular case with Lufuno Mavhunga.

When a bully gets accused of causing death comparatively to Lufuno’s attacker, they face involuntary manslaughter charges (which are equivalent to and known as capable homicide here in South Africa) in other parts of the world. Involuntary manslaughter is a criminal offense that involves causing the death of another person by acting with criminal negligence that creates an unreasonable risk to others, and the offender takes the chance with their conduct of causing great bodily harm or death.

A person who commits involuntary manslaughter does not intentionally kill someone, though they should know that their behavior is likely to end someone’s life.

There are two distinct ways that bullies in today’s society cause the death of a bullying victim:

• They act with physical violence against a victim and cause fatal injuries

• They harass, stalk, or humiliate victims to a degree that leads to suicide.

If these charges are applicable in our country, I hope that the law and justice system does right by Lufuno and her family by allowing justice to take its course. If she does get charge for capable homicide (which I hope they do) she will get locked up for 10 years plus more years for assault and cyber bullying.