Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema (C) stands outside a Clicks Store, a retail-led food and healthcare group which is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), at the Mall of the North in Polokwane, on September 7, 2020. Dozens of South Africa's radical EFF party activists picketed outside stores of a leading retail pharmacy Clicks over a hair advert on its website which described black hair as "dull" and white hair as "normal". The party deemed the adverts racist and demand the pharmacy shuts its shops for five days. (Photo by Phill Magakoe / AFP)
Limpopo MEC for education, Polley Boshielo has challenged the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to use the same energy the party displayed in the Clicks advertisement drama to fight the escalating cases of gender-based violence happening in the country daily.
The challenge comes after three women were killed in separate incidents in Limpopo over the weekend, allegedly at the hands of their partners.
On Monday, thousands of EFF members embarked on a nationwide protest at Clicks stores, after an advert which described black hair as “frizzy and dull” and white hair as “normal”. EFF members and supporters blockaded all entrances to the chain’s stores, singing and chanting protest slogans.
This has prompted Boshielo to plead with EFF Commander-in-Chief Julius Malema and the province’s provincial chair Jossey Buthane for their members to use the same energy displayed on Monday in the fight against the abuse, maiming, and killing of women and children in Limpopo and beyond the province’s borders.
“I am challenging the EFF to use the same adrenalin shown during the protest. We have seen that you have a lot of energy. We have seen that you are fearless and we have seen that nothing can stop you to get what we want. But why don’t we use the same energy to also fight this senseless killing happening in our country? Why don’t we prove to those doubting Thomases that we can fight this violence and stop these senseless killings?” Boshielo asked.
“We may not change where we come from, but we can choose where we are going. I, therefore, call on all real men to choose the right path and start treating women and children with love, respect and dignity because, without them, we are doomed as a society.”
The MEC’s pleas come after her visit on Monday to a bereaved family in Mokopane, where a 17-year-old pupil was killed.
The body of the deceased, Ramokone Kale, a Grade 12 learner at Ebenezer High School in Zone 2 Mahwelereng was found soaked in a pool of blood in a house at ga-Madiba village, outside Mokopane on Sunday.
Police Limpopo Commissioner, Lieutenant General Nneke Ledwaba has, however, commended the police for the arrest of a 19-year-old suspect within two hours. The suspect is expected to appear before the Mokerong Magistrate’s court soon on a charge of murder.
Meanwhile, the body of 20-year old Kgaugelo Shai, a Maake Tvet college student in Tyckiline outside Lenyenye, was recovered on Monday lying in a dry stream, after a week-long search by police and distraught family members. Shai was reported missing after she allegedly disappeared with her boyfriend last Friday. The boyfriend, who was allegedly out on parole after serving many years in prison, was earlier found after committing suicide.
“We have opened a case of murder against the suspect, Ronney Kgatla, 35, who was found dead after allegedly hanging from a tree,” said Limpopo police spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo on Monday.
On Saturday, a 35-year old woman in Sterkfontein Nkadimeng in Sekhukhune was allegedly stabbed several times to death with a sharp object by the father of her baby girl. Police identified the deceased as Elisabeth Tjiane of ward 29 in the Elias Motsoaledi local municipality.
– news@citizen.co.za
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