SA women are dying for love
If the men we are breeding are the reason so many families are mourning their daughters, we should admit we have a problem – and he wears pants.
ANCWL members and local residents march in protest against woman abuse from outside the Mamelodi Magistrate’s Court to the police station, the march was held in support of the victim and family of Lindiwe Sangweni who last Wednesday was allegedly bludgeoned to death by her boyfriend, Phenius Mampane who was appearing in court, 2 June 2017, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles
Bodies found under beds in places their parents would never associate with their children, with men who mothers bemoaned and fathers once emulated… Our daughters, who believe in love, are being buried in numbers.
What can the women of our generation celebrate on Women’s Day when we are being sent to slaughterhouses under the guise of love?
SA women remain the backbone of the family – a mother who tossed her pride aside and put her children first to sell wares on pavements – working their fingers to the bone.
South Africa has been built by mothers, grandmothers, aunts and sisters. That the single, even the married mother, should be as heavily burdened makes one wonder how South Africa conducts itself towards its women.
If the economy does not bury women, their partners do.
The domineering male gaining traction is a hindrance to the growth of the country as a whole. If the men we are breeding are the reason so many families are mourning their daughters, searching for their missing daughters and attending court cases seeking justice for their sisters, we should admit we have a problem – and he wears pants.
We attribute the failures of boys on the absence of a father figure. The argument being that if a real man was present in the household, that role model would guide one in the right direction.
How have we arrived at a point where women walk around with targets on their backs?
When did we normalise a situation where a girl is taught to be afraid, weary and trust no man?
We have moved from being afraid of an oppressor of a different skin colour to an oppressor who resembles our brothers, fathers and husbands.
Today, women are held prisoners in a place and time that has turned their bodies into crime scenes … cry our beloved country.
As a society, we are only willing to come to the aid of the weak and downtrodden when it’s all but too late.
This women’s month, let it be a fight to keep our women alive.
Kekeletso Nakeli-Dhliwayo.
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
For more news your way
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
