“Gender Based Violence and Femicide is tearing our country apart” 

Edgar Curtis Legoale

South Africa is bleeding, we are crying with them(Women), when we are the ones who are responsible for these evil deeds to our Dandelions in Mzansi through Gender Based Violence and Femicide.

Where did we go wrong? What have our Women in South Africa did, to deserve these heartless and evil activities by the very same people who must be in the front in defending and protecting them? What got into us as men in this country? Why are we killing our daughters, our sisters, our mothers and grandmothers?

As if all the questions above are not enough, we rape and abuse them in many ways!

South Africa might have abolished Death Penalty in 1995 but that should not give us(Men) any right in abusing our country’s flowers, for this reason, i recommend also that harsh punishment and sentencing be practiced to all those who are found to have done this evil deeds irrespective of the perpetrators’ caliber and positions.

Gender Based Violence and Femicide is no longer a shock or a surprise in South Africa and simply because we no longer care about our women, our government has for far too long been ignorant in tackling this issue and now it has reached a stage of being National Crisis as if we don’t have enough problems already with Unemployment, Poverty and Inequality.

Sandra Smith who was the last woman to be executed in 1989 by the then atrocious South African Government at that time, should just forgive her fellow women today when they call for re-introduction of Death Penalty, because now it is no longer about the government system that oppressed the Black Community but the heartless things we do to her fellow women in our country.

In 2014 already it was recorded that almost 76% Millennium Generation supported this call, we could not notice at that time what they were seeing about their future, because now it is cut short by us(Men).

We(Men) are on a daily basis continuing to fail our women, the people whom they are looking up to for protection. Are we that weak to keep on killing the indefensible women, instead of killing Unemployment, Poverty and Inequality?

All this continuing barbaric behavior by some Men doesn’t represent me as a Man! I condemn all these evil deeds by our fellow men and I support anything that seeks to deal with the perpetrators harshly.

Our mothers are afraid to send their babies to Creche, Our Mothers are not certain whether their Children will come back from school, Children are fearful of the REAL possibility of their sisters coming out of Tertiary Institutions alive and even more patrified of the unthinkable potential of their Mothers not making it back home after work, and lastly their grannies are being harassed by the same grandchildren they have raised in poverty-stricken households. 

Where is the LOVE?

There are many females who go through what a Student at Ufs went through the other day in a “well secured” Examination Room where she was raped.

It is not the first time a person or, to be frank, an ANIMAL in a form of Luyanda Botha does what he did by abusing, raping and killing Uyinene Mrwetyana but we are afraid of calling a spade what it is, the kidnapping of a 6 years old Amy-Lee De Jager is no longer something that needs rhetoric and/or use of euphemisms, stern action needs to be taken as a matter of urgency in nipping this social anomaly in the proverbial butt.

Uyinene Mrwetyana Thank you for your life, because of your life we are now up in arms and trying to do only now what we should have done ages ago, which may have resulted in you being still alive today.

Because trust me this didn’t start with you, Lethu Ngobese was a student in University of Zululand (UNIZULU) and in 2017 she was raped and killed by the man who was on parole at the time of the incident, same way as you have been tortured, harassed and killed by a person who was once charged of rape but because of our lazy and unmoved justice system, you are no longer with us today.

In showing our Justice System is unmoved and careless, it has now reported Luyanda Botha was granted a bail when exactly it is known the country is still angry at him, then on the same night of his release his house burned down by angry community.

Who do we blame again, the community or the Justice System? I think all the perpetrators of such offenses like your raping, kidnapping and killings of our women, MUST not be granted bails as this in itself has an element of provoking our communities.

Since there’s a Domestic Violence and The Sexual Offences and Related Matters Amendment act 32 of 2007, i’m recommending and challenging the new Justice Minister Hon. Ronald Lamola and his Committee in Parliament to look into coming up with an Act specifically dealing with femicide offenses.

If a small country like Guatemala managed to passed Decree 22 in 2008 that defined Laws Against Femicide and Other Forms of Violence Against Women and merely 2 years later in January 2010 almost 27 000 cases were reported by women, imagine how helpful this can be for us in dealing with this elephant in the country.

Though I still believe Acts are not enough to deal away with both GBV and Femicide, hence we(Men) need to look after women in our different places but at least they have capacity to reduce the high rate we are experiencing now. 

Accountability needs to be strengthened with mechanisms in place that require all relevant stakeholders (not just the police) to report to Parliament on how they help ensure access to justice in Gender Based Violence and Femicide matters. FEMICIDE in South Africa is a crime against humanity.

I urge Government to look into fastening the security for our females in SA, more especially in Institutions of Higher Learning and speedy implementation of the Presidential Summit against Gender Based Violence and Femicide Resolutions of the 1st to 2nd of November 2018.

Rest Mbokodos… We shall fight for your justice and all others who experienced this tragedy in our country.

I will be part of all the MEN who are ready to protect WOMEN in South Africa. Our BABIES, CHILDREN, SISTERS, MOTHERS AND GRANDMOTHERS need us more than ever!!!

I condemn harshly the GBV and Femicide activities with the highest contempt they deserve, only real MEN will be with me and understand my story.

Edgar Curtis Legoale is an Activist, ANC, ANCYL Member and Youth Development Practitioner writing on his personal capacity.

Contact Number: +27 (0) 73 056 9844

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