Real men stand up against women’s abuse
ABOUT 200 men – and a number of women – gathered in the Joburg CBD yesterday afternoon to protest against women and child abuse.
The men, who held posters that said “stop killing our women and children”, wore black T-shirts, and donned red lipstick in solidarity with women. The march came after a spate of well-publicised attacks on women and children across the country in recent months.
MEC for Community Safety Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane was one of the several women in attendance, and she led the group at a rally outside the Department of Health and then on an hour-long march around Newtown that concluded at the Gauteng Legislature.
Dancing alongside protesters, Nkosi-Malobane said in an interview that the decision to march with men came after years of women marching and the problem just not improving. She said the goal of the rally and march was to educate men and make them enthusiastic about the fight against genderbased violence.
Nosimpiwe Sikota, one of the women at the protest, said she enjoyed seeing so many men gathered to protest against violence on women. “It shows a lot of people are out to support us,” she said.
Teddy Makgale, who works in community policing, said he’s seen countless women come to the trauma centre of the police station, abused and beaten.
“It’s disgusting. What type of man does this? It’s embarrassing to all of us.”
When Nkosi-Malobane addressed the protest, she told the men that their sisters, daughters, mothers, wives and girlfriends relied on them for safety.
The overall feeling of the protest, as men danced and sang and chanted “stop raping us, stop killing us”, was one of unity in the face of genderbased violence.
The sentiment stood in stark contrast to #MenAreTrash, the viral hashtag that women used to tell their own stories of abuse. Opinions on the hashtag, and the culpability of men, varied widely among those at yesterday’s march.
“Not all men are trash,” said Thulani Simelane, a marcher and participant in the Men as Partners programme. “That hashtag sends the blanket message that all of us are involved. We can do better than name-calling.”
A number of others said the hashtag placed the blame on all men when only some committed violent crimes. They hoped the march would show women that some men were good.
Nkosi-Malobane said she hoped men would see the #MenAreTrash initiative as a wake-up call, not an insult. “Many men that are not trash still support the hashtag. They say until men stop killing and raping and abusing women, men are trash. I support that.”
Sanele Ndlovu, a teacher, said she appreciated the hashtag because it shed light on how serious violence against women was. “It’s true that not every man is a rapist or murderer but when I’m walking on the street at night and see a man following me, I can’t tell if he’s a good man or not,” she said.