Thousands march in Durban to end gender based violence
The demonstrators-mainly women- marched along the promenade with placards in an effort to draw attention to recent rapes and killings in the country.
CHANTS of ‘my body, my choice’ and ‘you strike a woman, you strike a rock’ reverberated around the Durban Promenade on Saturday as thousands of residents voiced their support for the Justice for Women march.
The demonstrators-mainly women- marched along the promenade with placards in an effort to draw attention to recent rapes and killings in the country.
Organisers said the murder of several women including University of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana brought the spotlight on the femicide crisis facing South Africa.
Speaking to Northglen News, Jess Smeeton, who was one of seven organisers of the march, said they felt they had to something to show their
“I think everyone is aware and shocked at the extent of gender based violence in the country which is utterly unacceptable. When survivors and victims of sexual assaults came forward and began sharing their stories on social media, we as a group of friends, said we have to do something about it. It wasn’t enough just sharing these posts on social media, so when we as a group decided we needed to do something we created a Facebook event. We thought we’d have around 50 of our family and friends join in but when we had so many women come forward and voice their support for the march we were blown away,” she said.
Smeeton also voiced her support for the announcement made by President Cyril Ramaphosa of an overhaul of the national register of gender-based violence offenders.
Addressing the nation last week, Ramaphosa said he would be asking Parliament to make public the national register of offenders.
“I fully support that call making the register public, perpetrators shouldn’t be protected. I was in a radio interview last week and while chatting with another women we spoke about how often the names of the victims of sexual assault are known and often shamed for it. So why should the men who are the perpetrators not be named for their despicable acts,” she said.
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