“Get help if you can’t control your anger and walk away if you feel that you cannot communicate except with your fists.”

Chief of Tshwane Metro Police Commissioner Yolanda Faro sent out this message during the launch of 16 Days of Activism on Tuesday, which started with a march from Eersterust to Mamelodi East.

“We are launching the 16 Days of Activism, but at the metro police, it is actually 365 days,” said Faro.

The march was attended by different stakeholders, including the CPF, Tshwane metro police’s Women’s Network Forum and Men for Change.

Faro said they chose to start the march in Eersterust because not long ago, there was a serial killer active in the area.

“We are going to Mamelodi East because there is a high number of GBV cases and femicide.”

The metro department will be visiting Themba in Hammanskraal to raise awareness about GBV cases and femicide on December 10.

“A child is like a sponge. If you put the sponge in clean water, it absorbs it, and in dirty water absorbs it too. That is your community, your household, and that is what a child absorbs too,” she said.

The metro police also encouraged women, children, men and the elderly to break the silence of abuse before they become the next victims, because GBV affects the whole community.

She further said TMPD have taken a stand. “We will not go lightly on perpetrators and we are coming with the full might of the law.

“We know women abuse men too, but most of the perpetrators are men.”

Councillor Novina Pillar from Eersterust said, “We should not really concentrate on 16 Days of Activism because gender-based violence is happening all year round”.

“We are standing at a spot where women’s bodies were picked up next to the Waltloo train station to send a strong message. Enough is enough! No more killings and abuse of women and children,” Pillar said.

Pillar added that the perpetrator thought he was going to get away with it. “We want justice for the women killed and those who are abused by men.

“Abuse comes in many forms and our children are growing up in abusive homes. Gone are those days when you complained about abuse and your parents would tell you, ‘My child, go back to your house’.”

She added that men are also abused and it was time for men to step out of the closet that they are in and come forward by breaking the silence and talking about abuse.

Napoleon Muller, chairperson of Eersterust CPF, said the launch is a big thing for women and children.

“It is sad to see the abuse of women, our children and some men who are afraid to come out when they are abused.

With the march, we are saying we won’t tolerate abuse to women, children and men,” Muller said.

“We want women to be respected too and not be abused,” he added.

He said the march is aimed at encouraging the public to be the eyes and ears of the police by breaking the silence of abuse and start reporting these cases to the police.

“We want a safe festive season without abuse.”

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