Hillary Gardee’s murder highlights the need to protect women, children in SA

The pain in Godrich Gardee’s voice was palpable as he spoke at the funeral of his daughter, Hillary: “We birth children to bury us and not to bury them.”

But it was his later comments which cut to the essence of the gender-based violence (GBV) which plagues this country.

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Garde said his daughter had been forced by her abductors to use her bank card to get cash.

He also said her adopted three-year-old child (who was with her when she went to the shops) told people in the area that her mother had been “fighting”.

“More than 100 people have failed to report this to police. Their silence killed you,” said Gardee, speaking to his daughter.

Men – and it is overwhelmingly them who are the perpetrators of these heinous murders, rapes and assaults – have been getting away with these crimes because the community at large lets them get away with it.

READ MORE: ‘I must not be the first one to catch them’: Malema vows to find suspects behind Hilary Gardee’s death

This community – including women, it must be said – allows a climate to be fostered where women and girls are regarded as second class citizens, where abuse is tolerated or laughed at.

If it takes a village to raise a child, then surely it requires a village to protect its women and children.