City Parks launches activism campaign

As part of its campaign for 16 Days of Activism, City Parks is hosting a series of mass self-defence classes at 12 Johannesburg parks to equip the public to protect themselves.

Bulumko Nelana, managing director of Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo said the campaign, which was launched on 26 November in Diepsloot, is aimed at driving public focus on gender violence by helping communities take ownership of their neighbourhoods in a fun and healthy project.

The campaign will end on 7 December at Zoo Lake in Saxonwold and City Parks hopes to attract 3 000 people to break the Guinness World Record for the most people to simultaneously participate in a self-defence class.

Gender activist and campaign ambassador, Lebo Mashile said the My Parks My City campaign is unique because it sought not only to empower women and children but to allow people to reclaim and utilise their public spaces.

She added that parks are often perceived as unsafe and have a reputation for being havens for crime and violence, which the campaign aimed to dispel.

Mashile said that violence against women and children is a widespread problem that needs to be addressed in all communities.

“Diepsloot is a poor community which is disenfranchised, but it is a real community where people take their children to school and go to work; although it is lengths and breadths different from wealthier areas like Saxonwold, issues of violence against women and children are equally important in both areas,”she said.

According to Rape Crisis, South Africa is reportedly the “rape capital” of the world and only 2,8 percent of rapes are reported.
Crime statistics released last year for the period April 2011 to March 2012 revealed that there were 64 514 sexual crime cases reported to police.