Residents march against violence
Philippi community calls for end to domestic abuse
SIXTY Philippi residents, and civil society organisations marched to the Philippi East police station yesterday demanding an end to domestic violence and child abuse in the area.
Led by the House Of Smile (HOS), the march started with a candle-lit service at the Khanyisa Centre in memory of women and children who have died as a direct result of domestic violence, child abuse and neglect.
Organiser and social worker for HOS, Andisiwe Magingxi, said the purpose of the march was to pledge collective support to the police and the security cluster for their efforts in curbing the incidents of domestic violence.
They wanted to attract other organisations, churches and community-based organisations to support the call for safer communities.
“As the House Of Smile organisation we have various projects within the organisation that assist the community.
“Our aim is to bring a smile to the community and to assist rape victims with their rape cases.
“We have after-school programmes to keep children safe, because we’ve found out that the reason why we have a large number of rape cases is that children are unattended in their homes after school.
“Sometimes children are raped by their uncles and their mother’s boyfriends, so we try everything to keep them safe from such incidents.
“We also have projects for women where we help them develop skills so they can become independent and not depend on their husbands and boyfriends,” said Magingxi
Treatment Action Campaign member Nomfusi Libala said the child abuse and domestic violence rate was increasing daily in their community.
“As a community, we’ve lost our trust in SAPS, because they are not playing their role in the community. Rape cases are always ignored. I believe that after this march we will see a difference, and an improvement in their visibility,” said Libala
Community member Lulama Mame said he was pleased to be part of the march and believed they were working as a team with other organisations to fight domestic violence and child abuse.
Philippi East station commander Brigadier Sandile Sonjana said they were prepared to work with the community with every challenge they faced.
“We are going to support this venture and we are more than willing to work together with the organisations under government,” he said.
“We have identified liquor as the highest contribution factor in terms of crimes that are committed, especially against women and children. We are appealing to all communities to work with the police to ensure that we root out causes of crime, such as liquor and drugs abuse.
“We appeal to communities to be the eyes of the police so that we can arrest the perpetrators. We have already registered about 60 cases of assault against women and children this year.”