Cape Argus

Why is organisati­on blind to GBV so rampant in SA?

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MOHAMED Desai, a director of Africa4Pal­estine (formally known as BDS) has filed a 13-page official complaint to the Judicial Service Commission against the chief justice for his personal views on Israel. Desai refers to his organisati­on as a “human rights organisati­on”.

If indeed it were a humanitari­an organisati­on one would expect that some statement against the genocide in Syria claiming more than 600 000 lives, or the death toll of Yemen upwards of 100 000 mainly children’s lives lost or even the endemic gender-based violence in South Africa, would be voiced by this organisati­on or Desai himself.

Not a single utterance against such human rights violations ever heard from him or his organisati­on.

Headline news on July 8 highlighte­d gender-based violence and hospital care negligence endemic in South Africa

A 2-year-old toddler has to have her leg amputated due to infection resulting from an incorrect drip inserted in her leg and the staff were alerted to this yet did nothing to treat the infection

A 12-year-old girl was sent home from school as she did not have a mask – something that is mandatory for schools to provide.

This poor girl then had to walk 7km home and en route was accosted and raped by a 17-year-old youth.

Young pregnant girls have been stabbed to death and (one) hung from a tree.

There have been reports of other incidents of violence on women and children on a daily basis.

A woman is raped every minute (official statistics) in South Africa. And the horrific stories continue to emerge daily

Have you no shame not addressing the human rights violation against women and children in your own country?

Have you no shame – how can you claim to be a human rights organisati­on when your organisati­on has yet to condemn the killing fields of Syria, Yemen and Myanmar.

Have you no shame when your organisati­on has yet to protest the human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, DRC and Sudan?

Have you no shame when you criticise the judge president of your country but don’t criticise Dirco for its warm relations with Syria and other human rights abusers?

Very clearly your organisati­on is as far from a human rights organisati­on as the earth is from the moon – shame on you. ALLAN WOLMAN Tel Baruch, Israel

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