The EFF condemned the recent brutal murder of Sebolaishe Ennifar Leso.
The Limpopo Department of Transport and Community Safety is concerned about the recent increase of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) incidents amid the festive season.
Departmental MEC, Violet Mathye said during a media interview with The Citizen on Thursday that it was needles to remind the province and the entire country that there have been horrifying GBV incidents throughout the whole year.
GBVF incidents in Limpopo
The most horrifying one, Mathye said was on 9 August when President Cyril Ramaphosa was in Nkowankowa Stadium in Tzaneen celebrating the National Women’s Day.
The MEC said an officer of the South African Police Service (Saps) allegedly shot his wife in cold blood in GBVF related incident.
“Unfortunately the community took the law unto their hands and revenged.”
The second incident, Mathye said, was around Seshego, outside Polokwane where a member of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) was poured with hot cooking oil over his body by a female partner.
“Sadly, the man refused to open a criminal case.”
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Like all law-abiding South Africans, the MEC was also concerned about the hike in GBVF incidents statistics.
She said recent statistics indicate that the Vhembe region in Limpopo has recorded the highest numbers in such incidents.
She added that around September this year, Limpopo Premier Phophi Ramathuba convened a special executive committee (ExCo) meeting to deal specifically with such incidents.
Mathye explained that the department is tackling GBVF by working through the police’s civilian secretariat with multiple organisations such as the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) while also raising awareness and involving communities, churches, and traditional leaders.
EFF member killed
Meanwhile, the EFF condemned the recent brutal murder of Sebolaishe Ennifar Leso in Mogalakwena Ga-Mapetleleke village in a GBV incident.
The EFF described Leso as a committed ground force of the party, who loved the red berets to the end.
EFF provincial chairperson, Lawrence Mapoulo said it was sad and tragic that the scourge of GBV continued to tear the moral fabric of the Limpopo society.
“This death and many others which occurred before is testament to the fact that there is a need for renewed focus and new strategies to tackle gender based violence and femicide as a national crisis.
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“It is regrettable that the Domestic Violence Act is been violated by the very same institutions that are supposed to enforce because many perpetrators continue to get light sentences hence the recurrence of GBV atrocities.
“As we mourn her death, we strongly condemn this act, in which a 41 year old man is alleged to have ended the life of Fighter Sebolaishe.
“While the details of the case continue to unfold, the tragic loss of yet another woman at the hands of a man reaffirms the painful and undeniable truth that Limpopo remains engulfed in a persistent, deadly, and deeply rooted crisis of patriarchal violence,” Mapoulo said.
