In the morning, I was the first one to see the sun rising. I was already at church waiting for my group members, and they finally arrived one by one. I couldn’t wait to announce the good news.

“Hello guys. I came up with a plan that will help all of us,” I said as soon as everyone had arrived.

My group members couldn’t wait to hear me out.

“I made a punching bag that we’ll use to take out our anger on. I found a space we’ll use at home. We’ll share our advice together, and those who are burning with anger will use the punching bag to calm down. I am excited to announce that a year back, I entered a short story competition under the theme “Public shame is an inappropriate punishment” and guess what, I won!”

“You won?” Nomalanga elatedly asked.

“Yes, I’ll use that money to buy any equipment we’ll need to recover from what we’ve been going through for now. I want each and every one of us to invite our parents here at half past three. Today we are finally putting an end to this, you can spread the word about this event! But whoa, where’s the boy from yester …”

Before I could finish speaking, the boy walked in with a shirt covered in blood, and we were all shocked. I nearly fainted. He made his way closer to us, and we saw that he had a gash on the chest. He was panting like he was running a marathon.

“Simon, what happened?” Nomalanga asked.

“She is gone,” the boy said, breaking into tears.

“Who’s gone?” I asked.

“My mother.”

“You killed her?” I was almost in tears.

“Yesterday, after talking with you, we put our differences aside and had a fresh start. I was ready to take things slow with her, although I had not fully forgiven her. Today she’s no more. She was stabbed to death by some guys who broke into our house this morning. I’m covered with her blood. She died in my presence, she died in front of me. I tried fighting the intruders, but the sharp knife they used missed my flesh, as you can see. I no longer have a reason to live.”

“No, don’t you ever say that, you will always have many reasons to live. For now, come with me. We’ll meet here at half past three,” I confidently said.

After the meeting, I took the boy home, and my mother didn’t say anything. I introduced him to her and I borrowed him my t-shirt. At half past three, mama drove us to the church, and all the girl’s parents were there, and some were even represented by their fathers. The church was half full, and it looked like people knew about the event we were hosting. Everyone was all ears, waiting for the speech I was about to deliver.

“My greetings to you all,” I said, beginning the speech. “Public shaming is a form of punishment whose main feature is dishonouring or disgracing a person, especially in a public space. If it wasn’t penitence, it wouldn’t have stolen so many true identities of young people and made them feel inferior. This has been going on under our noses for too long. It has been a disease we’ve been living with as a society…”

I took off my jersey, exposing all the scars on both my arms.

“See these scars?” I continued. “I always cut myself to escape reality. I have been robbed of my self-image and dignity, and my pride was taken away from me by people who were supposed to add value into my life, not to destroy it. Earlier today, I dropped out of school because I had no choice, I was tired of being a mockery to all the students. I nearly let go of my dream career, but I’ve came to my senses. I am going back to challenge my defences, it’s never too late.”

I paused, then continued after a while. “What I can say about public shaming is that, once a person has publicly shamed you, the respect you have for them eventually dies, and this occurs naturally. You can’t be a parent and shame a person publicly, especially a teenager. Teenagers are already struggling when it comes to their self-esteem and self-image. I’m not saying that if children do wrong they shouldn’t be punished, but public shaming is worse than corporal punishment. The scars public shame leaves on the heart never fade away. Don’t do what you won’t like to be done to you. What goes around comes around, don’t rejoice in somebody’s downfall, thank you.”

Tell us: Do you agree with Azania’s speech?