Women’s Day celebrated against rising GBVF
Gauteng women say they have had enough of gender-based violence and femicide and demand government’s firm intervention to end the crime.
Thousands of women from all over Gauteng converged at the Union Buildings on Tuesday to celebrate Women’s Day amid high rates of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) in the country.
The Women’s Day celebration started with a march from Church Square in the city centre to Union Buildings in Arcadia to raise awareness of and demand government take action about GBVF.
“Having suffered injustices during the apartheid regime, we continue to suffer at the hands of men during the democratic dispensation,” ANC women’s league Gauteng secretary Esther Nhlapho said, reading from a memorandum.
She said the injustices that the women still face in the 21st century was a setback.
“Patriarchy, gender inequality and the socio-economic deprivation of women persist to threaten our hard-earned democratic gains.
She said the quadruple challenges of poverty, inequality, unemployment and GBVF, which was declared a pandemic by President Cyril Ramaphosa, were momentous and continued to affect the day-to-day lives of women and other vulnerable members of society.
Photo: Ron Sibiya
Photo: Ron Sibiya
“Incidents of sexual assault, rape and murder have reached unprecedented proportion,” she said, adding that women live in fear, both inside and outside their homes.
She demanded all spheres of government to take firmer action, working with the community, to put an end to GBVF.
“Intervention must be more preventative than reactionary,” she said, adding that it should also focus on changing the behaviour of a perpetrator to prevent further acts of GBVF.
She said “more efforts should be directed at educating young boys to ensure that they do not become perpetrators in the future”.
The protesters demanded that “bail should not be granted to suspects in GBVF and harsher sentences should be given to perpetrators”.
Photo: Ron Sibiya
They demanded the government account on a quarterly basis on interventions made to end the GBVF.
“We say as women in Gauteng, enough is enough. We have seen it all and we do not want it to continue.”
Gauteng premier David Makhura received the memorandum and said that the democratic government must work with women for them to be part of decision-making.
“The government should not just work for the women, the women want to be there when the problems are solved,” Makhura said.
We want to be part of the decision-making.”
Photo: Ron Sibiya
He said business owned by women in the townships will receive funding from the government and all the law enforcement agencies including the soldiers will work together with community members in fighting violent crime.
Top South African singers such as Judith Sephuma, Zahara, Suthukazi Arosi and Zoë Modiga treated the women to music.
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