VIDEO: WATCH A THORW BACK VIDEO OF SBUSISO LAWRENCE WHO STABBED HIS GIRLFRIEND TO DEATH THEN HUNG HIMSELF
All this killings are not something new and they keep happening. I'm taken aback at how quick people are to forget and they stop finding a way to deal with these.
When Love Turns Fatal: Looking Back at the Sbusiso Lawrence Tragedy
Love should never end in death, and no moment of heartbreak should ever be filmed as a trophy
Every year, South Africa seems to wake up to another heartbreaking story — a young woman murdered by someone she once loved, and a video circulating online showing her final moments. It has become a painful pattern, one that repeats itself so often that many are beginning to fear it’s becoming our new normal.
I still remember when the story of Sbusiso Lawrence broke. He was an ordinary man from KwaZulu-Natal, but what he did turned him into the face of something dark and deeply troubling. In a video that quickly spread across social media before being taken down, Sbusiso sat in his car beside the lifeless body of his girlfriend. His voice was calm, almost detached, as he spoke about betrayal, money, and heartbreak.
He claimed he had supported her for years, that she had recently received a payout from the Road Accident Fund, and that she was planning to leave him. To him, it was reason enough. To the rest of us, it was another chilling example of how love, jealousy, and rage can twist into something fatal.
Hours after posting the video, Sbusiso was found dead — hanging from a tree near the crime scene. Police later confirmed it was a suspected suicide. By then, the video had already done its damage. Screens across the country had shown the unthinkable.
And this is what’s most frightening: it’s slowly becoming fashionable to record these moments. As if pain now needs proof. As if murder only becomes real when it’s filmed. We’ve reached a point where the line between tragedy and spectacle is vanishing — where violence is broadcast like a confession, and grief becomes content for clicks.
Each year we tell ourselves “never again.” But then, another face trends. Another woman’s name becomes a hashtag. Another video resurfaces, and for a week or two the nation cries, debates, condemns — until the next one comes.
Sbusiso’s case was not the first, and it will not be the last, unless something changes. Behind every headline is a family destroyed, a child left motherless, and a community asking why love has turned into death.
It’s easy to blame social media, but the truth runs deeper. There’s a sickness in how we handle pain, rejection, and ego. A lack of healing spaces. A silence around mental health and toxic relationships that grows louder each time we ignore the warning signs.
As we look back on cases like this, the message remains the same and painfully urgent: love should never end in death, and no moment of heartbreak should ever be filmed as a trophy.
A Final Reflection
Maybe it’s time we, as a nation, start listening — really listening — to the quiet cries behind the chaos. We can no longer watch these stories unfold like seasons. We need to talk, to teach, to heal. Every woman deserves safety, and every man deserves help before anger becomes a weapon. Because until hearts are healed, this cycle of love and violence will never end.
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