A story has been going around for the past few days, you can read the article, but basically the father killed 3 men who allegedly gang-raped his daughter, (and gave her HIV).

What first caught my eyes was the comments section of that article; just about everybody was applauding his reaction.
And I must admit, my own first reaction would be to carry that man on my shoulder and give him a medal for what he did.
But then I started thinking, what if he is wrong? What would you think of him if he got it wrong? Would he then be nothing more than a murderer?

The other question that was raised in some of the follow up articles is, he will be sentenced to about 20 or 30 years in prison for the murders, (even a sympathetic judge has to give at least that much, he just has to), he will serve an effective 10 or 15 years.
During that time he will be away from his daughter he tried so hard to avenge? She was, (allegedly), also infected with HIV/AIDS, so it is not impossible that she will be fairly sick, if not dead, by the time he actually comes out of jail, (given our non existent health care).

Basically, would he not have been a better father to stand by his daughter, point the police in the right direction, get the men arrested and hope in the justice system?
I am well aware that there is hardly any justice in South Africa anymore, and that the police couldn’t care less about us, the citizens of South Africa…

But is it better to spend 20 years behind bars or 20 years next to your daughter helping her rebuild her shattered life?