Stealing is wrong on any account; but we have nevertheless put what was in all likelihood a desperately hungry man in jail, while people in positions of power and authority who steal to supplement their fleets of 4x4s and luxury homes, go scot-free.

Police recovered the food the man stole but seldom are the huge amounts taken by the elite money-grabbers ever returned or repaid.

JUSTICE, what justice? People might legitimately ask this question.

Another first-time petty thief put away; while rich exploiter lives on to steal again because he's got his connections and ill-gotten gains to shore him up against just such a fate.

If we could have given the man a job; or taken all the millions stolen from the taxpayer, and created an unemployment fund to give the have-nots a little something to eke out an existence, then perhaps we might not have quarrelled with his sentence.

The law is something quite separate from the concept of justice in far too many cases and it seems to me our legal practitioners could do more to bring the two concepts closer to one another.

Clearly we should not steal, but if we do, then the law should be taking the situation in which the theft occurred into account when it metes out sentences.

While I am not familiar with all the intricacies of the case in question, and neither am I a lawyer, nevertheless I believe that justice was not done in this instance.

If I was hearing the case, and able to establish that firstly, the man was hungry; secondly, that he was a first offender; thirdly, that the food was retrieved; and fourthly, that he was unemployed; I would have given him a warning.

A man who could not afford to buy himself food worth N$9,20 was certainly unable to afford the N$300 admission of guilt, unless he had a rich relative tucked away in a parastatal, of course, who was able to pay it on his behalf! But we apparently choose to make an example out of petty transgressors such as these to lull ourselves into the belief that we're winning the battle against crime! Are we kidding ourselves, or what? Does this sort of incident portray us as a just and equal society? Of course not.

Most of the time we're so preoccupied with the black/white question that we ignore the real issue - the gap between rich and poor and the inequalities meted out to the latter group because the greedy thieves ensure there's never any money to lessen their plight.

I should also in the process exclude the many honest citizens, working in Government and/or private sector, who put in a hard day's work, try to better their skills and earn money only by legitimate means.

For there are many such people who would never dream of obtaining money and wealth either at the expense of others, or by ill-gotten gains.

There are however, not enough of them, and they need to be more vocal in order to challenge the status quo, which is blatantly unfair towards the less fortunate in our society.

Honest Namibians should be demanding a change, because the actions of the greedy make this a more unjust society and often unfairly reflect upon the rest.

And since we are a nation that claims to be overwhelmingly Christian, then the churches have both a duty and a calling to be vocal on this matter and not to turn a blind eye to those fleecing the system and further reducing the already-poor to a state of total penury.

They also have to make use of all the influence they can muster to ensure that our resources are properly and fairly distributed and do not simply disappear into the pockets of an avaricious elite.

If our concept of justice is intent simply on transferring assets from a wealthy white elite to ensure a wealthy black elite, we are missing the point altogether.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu recently risked (and was subjected to) political ire in South Africa by trying to illustrate this very point.

He is undoubtedly a man who speaks according to his conscience, and we could do with more of his ilk around here.

The challenge remains for us to work actively towards reducing the gap between rich and poor.

And this is no longer the simple black and white question that it used to be!

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