Learners are burning tyres outside the Alexandra Police Station. Photo: Nduduzo Nxumalo
Various Alexandra school learners were seen burning tyres in protest on Tuesday, 8 September, over the murder of an 18-year-old girl, Alex News reported.
The learners protested in front of the Alexandra Police Station, demanding justice for a fellow Eastbank High School learner, Jabulile Nkosi, whose body was found on the side of the street.
The protesting learners showed up at the police station to hand over their memorandum of demands.
Nkosi was murdered in the early hours of Sunday morning, 6 September, in East Bank towards Vasco next to Lion Crescent.
According to Alexandra police spokesperson Sergeant Simphiwe Mbatha, her body was found by a group of people who alerted the police.
“The deceased was lying lifelessly on the side of the street in a pool of blood. We noticed a gunshot wound on the head. The deceased was certified dead by paramedics,” Mbatha said.
Mbatha said the learners who recruited other local schools to join their protest said they wanted to see the perpetrators in jail.
In separate news, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that three new Bills were introduced in Parliament in order to fight gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide in the country.
This comes in light of the most recent incident where South African actress Thandeka Mdeliswa was murdered in “an act of gender-based violence”, her family confirmed in a statement over the weekend.
Mdeliswa died at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria where she had been transferred after being moved from hospital to hospital.
Although government had allocated a R1.6-billion Emergency Response Action Plan to combat GBV, the president said it was important to him that he did not respond with hollow words and empty promises.
“The three amendment Bills are designed to fill the gaps that allow some perpetrators of these crimes to evade justice and to give full effect to the rights of our country’s women and children.
“These Bills, once finalised, will help to restore the confidence of our country’s women that the law is indeed there to protect them,” he said.
This article first appeared on Alex News and was republished with permission.
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