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Mpumalanga Community Safety, Security and Liaison department to focus on gender-based violence

The problem of gender-based violence remains a huge challenge for the province and the country as a whole.

The Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison will channel more resources and energy towards the fight against gender-based violence (GBV) and crime during this fiscal period.

So said the MEC for this department, Vusi Shongwe, as he tabled his department’s budget for this financial year.

“We present this year’s budget speech against the backdrop of rising levels of crime and gender-based violence in the province and the country as a whole. Crime does not only threaten our democracy, it prevents people from freely living their lives and connecting with one another. It is in this context that the department with all its stakeholders should continue to work harder to eradicate crime and corruption. We owe it to the women and children of this country and the province to create an environment that will enable them to live their lives freely. GBV still remains a huge challenge for the province and the country at large. It cannot be correct that women and children continue to live in fear created by minority of cruel criminals who live among us,” said Shongwe.

Recently, the whole country and the world was shocked by the news of the attack on Mpumalanga’s world-renowned artist, the elderly Dr Esther Mahlangu. During the break-in at her homestead in Siyabuswa, she was assaulted and robbed. In another sheer display of absolute cruelty, the 28-yearold Hillary Gardee was killed.

ALSO READ: MEC urges exposure of ‘evil traditional healers’ following Bontle’s murder

Gardee was initially reported as a missing person. Days later, her body was discovered at a timber plantation on the road between Sabie and Lydenburg.

The recent abduction and murder of a six-year-old girl, Bontle Mashiyane from Mganduweni in the Masoyi area, left many people in great anguish.

Bontle’s body was found mutilated, which gave rise to the belief that she was killed for muti purposes. Shongwe made a call to the community to expose traditional healers who use body parts for muti.

“We will soon interact with the traditional healers in our province in order to mobilise them to work with us in crime prevention. We also want our communities to expose these evil people.

“These izinyanga must stop cleansing criminals who come to them for assistance after committing all types of atrocities. They should rather report them to the police and not help crooks to evade justice,” said Shongwe.

He said Masoyi, being the very same area where some children were killed after disappearing in 2017, is one of the areas that will receive heightened focus in the current financial year.

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