GBVF: Stop marching and do something about it, civil society body tells ANC

Eastern Cape-based civil society body, Khula Development Project, says the ANC should not march or deliver memoranda to authorities, but they must correct the laws that deal with the gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) scourge.

Khula’s director Petros Majola said Wednesday’s multi-stakeholder protest march in Mthatha led by ANC politicians was well and good, but those politicians should start by correcting the laws that favoured the perpetrators.

“Why are these politicians carrying memoranda to police stations instead of taking the problem to parliament? The government should work on the laws of the country, the constitution should be reviewed because it gives more rights to perpetrators,” Majola said.

“The last years had seen a marked rise in incidents of GBVF. It seemed the more authorities talked about the scourge, the more the perpetrators intensify their evil acts against the vulnerable women and children.”

Many rural communities in the former Transkei part of the Eastern Cape had been experiencing an increase in GBVF attacks where women were either raped or killed.

On Wednesday the ANC national executive committee member and the party’s national organiser Nomvula Mokonyane led a multi-stakeholder march to the Mthatha Central Police Station to voice their anger at the continuing GBVF.

The ANC and its women’s league were joined by civil society body Not In My Name and the Economic Freedom Fighters to deliver a memorandum of grievances at the station.

The Mthatha march was sparked by the brutal shooting of Namhla Mtwa on the driveway of her home allegedly by her boyfriend last month.

Nine bullets were pumped into her body. But her boyfriend, who is a prime suspect, denied any involvement in the attack.

Mokonyane demanded justice for Mtwa and other victims of GBVF. She expressed concern that the Mthatha station and another in the city were notorious for ignoring GBVF cases.

She said Police Minister Bheki Cele had been consulted to launch an investigation into the allegations made about the two Mthatha police stations.