— Evan Cantrell
The audio version of this article is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
On 23 March 2026, in-house lawyer Chinette Gallichan was murdered in cold blood outside the offices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration. In 2025, attorney Bouwer van Niekerk was shot in his own office, and at least 4 other whistleblowers were murdered.
On the heels of Gallichan’s death, the Minister of Justice said, “An attack of this nature undermines the rule of law and threatens the very foundation of our constitutional democracy. Legal practitioners play a critical role in ensuring access to justice, and their safety must be safeguarded at all times.” To that we say Amen. Yet the attacks continue unabated. Just recently, on 30 March, a municipal accountant in Emfuleni Municipality was murdered in another apparent hit.
It seems that life has become cheap in South Africa. A murder for hire can cost as little as R4,500, far less than the cost of hiring a decent attorney to institute legal proceedings. A professional killer can be kept on retainer for between R10,000 and R50,000 a month. The “economy of life” appears to be wildly out of balance.
Whilst speculations abound about the various corruption and organised crime links to these murders, very little is known for certain to the general public. There appears to be no central crime boss who can be removed to bring the whole system down. And so, law-abiding South Africans are left to wonder, why is life so cheap in our nation? And what can be done about it?
Ministers of government suggest that the solution is to hire more protection for whistle-blowers, or put more security outside of courts.
Scripture, however, suggests a far simpler solution. Ecclesiastes 8:11 says, “11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.” The most effective remedy for any crime is a just and severe punishment, carried out swiftly and consistently.
What is the appropriate punishment for murderers like those described above? Scripture is clear. Leviticus 24:17 “17 ‘If a man takes the life of any human being, he shall surely be put to death.” and Genesis 9:5-6 “5 Surely I will require [b]your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother, I will require the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.”
This verse gives us both the appropriate punishment and the reason. Murder demands the death penalty, because man is made in God’s image. Like the blood of righteous Abel, the blood of the murdered cries out for justice. This is the value that God places on human life.
Yet in South Africa, the death penalty was abolished in 1998. The Constitutional Court ruled that a death sentence was inconsistent with the murderer’s right to life. Whilst a murderer may be sentenced to life in prison, many are eligible for parole far earlier. After being convicted of the intentional murder of his girlfriend, Oscar Pistorius was released on parole 11 years later. And that is only for those who are caught, charged, and convicted.
With statistics like these, it is no wonder that life in South Africa is so cheap. The current state of our nation makes it abundantly clear that we are protecting the rights and the lives of criminals at the cost of the blood of the innocent.
Numbers 35 says, “blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.”
Our land has become polluted by innocent blood. The time has come for South Africans to reject political platitudes and demand that the death penalty be reinstated and swiftly carried out. This is the duty of the government – to be a terror to evildoers, as Romans 13 says. Only when murderers tremble before the sword of the Lord in the hands of the State will the economy of life be put back into balance.