Women send a strong message

Minister, MEC join throngs of marchers

The message was blunt – gender-based violence must “F... off ”.

Those were the words on a placard carried by a tearful Xoliswa Buthelezi in Pietermaritzburg yesterday. Another read: “My vagina is not your playground unless invited.”

ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini‚ Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Maite Nkoana-Mashabane‚ Gauteng MEC for sports‚ arts‚ culture and recreation Faith Mazibuko and ANC deputy secretarygeneral Jesse Duarte led scores of women in Johannesburg.

They carried placards which read: “We remember Karabo Mokoena” and “We remember Popi Qwabe”.

Mokoena was killed and her body set alight by her boyfriend‚ Sandile Mantsoe, in May last year. Mantsoe is serving a 32-year jail sentence.

Qwabe and her best friend were shot dead in Soweto in the same month after being kidnapped and robbed.

The group handed over their memorandum to ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule. The memorandum outlined ways to deal with violence directed at women.

In Durban‚ about 800 women called for the dismantling of patriarchy as they made their way to the city hall to hand over their memorandum.

And in East London, more than 100 women marched to the city hall to hand over their memorandum to Buffalo City mayor Xola Pakati.

In Cape Town‚ some protesters gathered at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, while mothers who had lost their children to gang violence met at the Castle of Good Hope before making their way to parliament.