Limpopo abuzz with 16 Days campaign activities

Various activities province wide have marked the first days of the annual world-wide campaign of 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence that commenced on Monday and will continue until 10 December.
Department of Transport and Community Safety Spokesperson Joel Seabi indicated that the campaign was on track and would be driven by various departments with events planned for all districts of the province. During this period the local government will convene a series of awareness campaigns and dialogues to discuss the causes of and to find appropriate solutions to the scourge of gender based violence.
A document made available by Seabi and containing the provincial programme stated that the proliferation of sexual gender injustices towards women and children remain a challenge that continues to haunt the nation who must together raise awareness to remove a dark cloud of abuse that continues to threaten human security and victimised women and children.
Other departments involved and who have already rolled out some of their programmes include Limpopo Economic Development and Tourism (Ledet), Correctional Services and the Department of Justice as well as the Provincial Government which will be hosting a safety and security summit in Tzaneen today (Thursday) and Friday.
The summit will be conducted as part of the review process of the Provincial Crime Prevention Strategy. The summit will be held in partnership with the University of Venda and objectives include aligning the strategy to new mandates and changing crime trends and patterns, ensuring that the strategy put emphasis on building safe communities and that all people in the province feel and are safe in line with the National Development Plan, and that the strategy encourages participation of communities in crime prevention and safety programmes in Limpopo.
Various stakeholders representing the Police, non-governmental organisations (NGO), the National Institute for Crime Prevention and Reintegration of Offenders (Nicro), the South African National Council on Alcoholism (Sanca), youth structures, traditional leaders and spiritual leaders are expected to attend the summit.
In the meantime the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo intends writing to the Speaker of the Limpopo Legislature, Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya after she inexplicably failed to approve a scheduled joint committee oversight visit to Tshwaranang Disability centre following reports of a 10-year-old girl allegedly being raped by four suspects recently.
A statement by the DA Spokesperson on social development Suzan Phala reminded that Ramakhanya’s snubbing of the visit comes as the province starts to observe the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children.
“The oversight visit was supposed to have been conducted last Friday and no reason for its cancellation was given. The DA had requested an oversight visit to the centre and for the MEC for Social Development Nkakareng Rakgoale to appear before the portfolio committee on Social Development to provide details around the incident. The cancellation shows a lack of seriousness by the legislature to address the current culture of abuse towards women and children, and toxic masculinity in our society,” Phala said.
According to her the province is currently losing the battle on violence against children and women. She pointed out that the 2018/2019 crime statistics for Limpopo painted a bleak picture and showed that rape had increased from 3 301 cases to 3 501
cases in the last financial year. “This high number means that almost ten rapes are reported per day in the province despite rape being one of the most under-reported crimes,” Phala concluded.

Story: RC Myburgh
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