Ina Skosana

The average, testosterone-fuelled South African man is unlikely to live past the age of 54 unless he manages to keep his violent impulses in check.

The National Planning Commission (NPC) has listed violence as one of the leading causes of local men’s low life expectancy.

In the National Development Plan, the NPC said young men were at a high risk of dying from violence. A typical example is Luciano Malouw, 24, from Pretoria, who said that getting into physical confrontations was nothing out of the ordinary for him. “That is how men settle things, we are not like women who get angry and shout. If someone disrespects me I have to put him in his place,” he said.

Malouw himself proudly wears multiple stab wounds that serve as a warning for anyone trying to “size him up”.

Though there were no statistics to show that young men were more prone to violence, a 2008 study by the MRC-Unisa Crime, Violence and Injury Lead Programme said that empirical evidence showed it to be true.

“There is qualitative evidence to suggest that a major percentage of perpetrators are male. It is also known that South Africa’s young men are far more likely than young women to start a physical fight or behave violently,” the study said.

Studies show “patriarchal notions of masculinity that emphasise toughness”, along with unemployment and drug and alcohol abuse, were the main causes of violence among men.

Life expectancy of the average man is 53.9 years and women is 57.2.

inas@thenewage.co.za