The two cases may seem unconnected but viewed together, they tell us a lot about our justice system.

The message I get is that in South Africa killing a homosexual is frowned upon but killing a rhino is not tolerated.

Giving Zoliswa’s killers 14 years for the murder leaves a bad taste in the mouth, even more so in the light of recent brutal murders of gay people in our country.

In sentencing the men, which lasted 90 minutes, Magistrate Raadiya Whaten said she believed the brutal killing of the 19-year-old lesbian - who was stabbed, beaten, clubbed and kicked to death - was fuelled "by hatred".

The killers, Lubabalo Ntlabathi, Sicelo Mase, Luyanda Londzi and Mbulelo Damba will be out in about five years or so and probably kill another homosexual.

Whaten presiding over this case at the Khayelitsha Regional Court, Cape Town said: "Zoliswa Nkonyana will never return to her family and, justly so, the accused have to pay for what they have done.

I think the whole idea of ‘paying’ for what you have done is where we get it wrong. The ‘paying’ approach should be reserved for ‘accidental’ criminals.

People who murder or rape should be removed from society because they are psychologically unstable – and no amount of ‘paying’ will alter their brain’s chemical imbalance.

 It seems that as a nation we think that by only classifying a crime, we solve the problem. We call the heinous crimes against homosexuals ‘hate crimes’ and file them away – until another so-called ‘hate crime’ is committed.

People whose intolerance of others lead them to murder are not fit to live among us. Life imprisonment should be the only sentence for rapists and murderers, since we no longer have the death penalty.

There should be no minimum and maximum sentence guidelines within which judges and magistrates can exercise their choices. Life should be it, period.