President victim of hoax campaign
Fake posters paint ANC trio as women abusers
President Cyril Ramaphosa, his predecessor Jacob Zuma and Energy Minister Jeff Radebe have become victims of a fake campaign against women abuse purported to be from the ANC Young Women’s Desk.
Digital posters are doing rounds with pictures of the three ANC leaders where they are being accused of genderbased violence, sexual abuse and harassment.
But the Young Women’s Desk has distanced itself from the three posters, saying they were fake versions of a legitimate digital campaign it is running and targeted at highprofile men who have either been found guilty or stand accused of violence against women and children. The campaign is aimed at naming and shaming these men.
The genuine posters target former ANC MP Mduduzi Manana, former Emfuleni mayor Simon Mofokeng and musician Arthur Mafokate, among others.
“Our campaign [aim] is to change the narrative from always talking about women who are victims instead of talking about the perpetrators; that’s how we decided to embark on a name-and-shame campaign,” said convener Precious Banda.
The fake posters released on Tuesday, which the Young Women’s Desk has distanced itself from, claim that Radebe “sexually harassed a junior government employee by forcefully flirting with her and sending her a ‘C.L.I.T requested message’” and that Ramaphosa “has multiple extramarital affairs”.
“What we have seen is that there are certain people who have decided to issue posters that are not sanctioned by us, using our logo, our names, pretending like the posters have been issued by us when it’s not us,” said Banda. “So we distance ourselves from that.”
The Young Women’s Desk said that the fake posters are weakening their campaign as it will be difficult to expose such people in the future.
“We feel like it is [done] to weaken our campaign. What if we were still going to post some of the names? We are even considering stopping.
“So it is weakening a battle against patriarchy and a battle to expose abusers,” she said.
The Young Women’s Desk will embark on a countrywide march on Wednesday to highlight the severity of genderbased violence.