Thousands march to end gender violence
In a bid to end gender based violence, about 1 000 women presented a memorandum to the Mpumalanga Provincial Government on Saturday.
NELSPRUIT – In a bid to end gender-based violence, about 1 000 women presented a memorandum to the Mpumalanga Provincial Government on Saturday. They marched to Mbombela Stadium, where they handed it over to Mr Vusi Shongwe, MEC for community safety, security and liaison.
Speaking during the handover, Ms Wandile Sobahle said female unemployment highly contributed to them being vulnerable to abuse. In the document, concerns were raised about the increase in the number of gender-based violence criminal cases.
According to the women, this indicated that the campaign on violence against women and children should be extended to every day of the year. The females called for government to provide enough resources to court systems to improve investigations of sexual-offence cases in order to enhance the conviction rate of rape and murder perpetrators.
Shongwe said women should be respected and recognised every day. The marchers also requested government to establish a hotline for the community to report all matters relating to gender-based violence.
According to Mr Joseph Mabuza, spokesman for the department, the demonstration was part the planned activities to celebrate Women’s Month to enhance government’s efforts to reach out to all females and support their economic empowerment and social emancipation.
