In South Africa, where crime is just about as normal as breathing, it is safe to say that nothing in the country can shock us anymore, yet every now and again a story will get a little bit more attention for being a tad bit more horrendous, heart-breaking or unthinkable.
As a nation, we will ponder on the story for a little bit longer and express our utter disgust until a new story comes along.
Have you ever wondered how many crime stories you are exposed to every day? Stories of other people's trauma just rolling all over your timeline on social media.
One of those stories made headlines earlier this year when a 44-year-old father from KwaZulu Natal killed his three biological children and his stepdaughter.
Sibusiso Mpungose hanged his four children aged four, six, ten and 16.
Before being sentenced to four life terms in prison Judge Sharmaine Balton called the murders atrocious and merciless.
A parent brutally killing their own children is truly unthinkable, yet it happens so often that there is a name for it.
Filicide, the act of killing your own child.
Mpungose believed that his estranged wife was having an affair and the pending divorce set him off on an emotional breakdown. This was the only explanation he could come up with in court.
We read the story, condemned it, and moved on.
All, but one woman, who joined the chorus of #EnoughisEnough.
PE Activist/Artist
The 41-year-old Nozibele Meindl, who hails from Kwazekhele in Port Elizabeth knew she had to do something. As a woman growing up in the townships, physical and sexual abuse was the norm for her and something that was never talked about.
Meindl, who currently lives in Germany with her husband and two children, now uses her art to speak out on behalf of victims.
"Storytelling is very important to me, as most of the time, news media aren’t representing victims of violence well in that, and oftentimes, the focus is on the method or the gruesome images. Forgetting to present exactly the devastation the victim felt, the loss or the effects felt by the victims’ families.” She said.
It is with these gruesome details and harrowing mental images that Meindl decided to tell the story of the last moments of 4-year-old Kuhlekonke, 6-year-old Khwezi, 10-year-old Sphesihle and their 16-year-old half-sister Ayakha who were brutally killed at the hands of someone they loved.
She says the story of Mpungose, in particular, hurt her deeply as these innocent children did not deserve such a death.
Meindl says issues concerning women and children have always been close to her heart and as an artist and activist, she felt the need to expose the escalation of domestic violence as it often ends in Filicide.
With her unique talent using her passion for photography, storytelling and digital art using charcoal she started her own production company 'Meindl Studios" to only create stories told by victims.
In her latest video, Meindl gives a voice to the now voiceless by forcing the viewer to take in the absolute atrocity in all its realness, to share the life of these children up until the moment it was taken away.
We cannot forget about little Kuhle, Khwezi, Sphesihle and Ayaka who looked their father in the eyes with the utmost confusion, fear and utter disbelief.
They were clinging on to life from the very person who was taking it away.
During Mpungose's sentencing, his estranged wife told the court that she too was dead.
"My life ended the day my children died," she told a packed courtroom.
Please note this short film is not for sensitive viewers.
