Help stop this gender-based abuse, Mr Mayor
Thousands of South African women took to the streets on Wednesday, protesting against the scourge of gender-based violence. The message was loud and clear: enough is enough. Their march was an important one as South Africa has a serious problem of violence against women and children. But something disturbing happened in East London when Buffalo City Metro mayor Xola Pakati’s bodyguard is alleged to have shoved #TotalShutDown movement spokesperson Aphiwe Ntlemeza because she had walked behind him. We can only assume that the overzealous bodyguard thought the visibly unarmed Ntlemeza posed a security risk.
But no matter what his reasons were, there was no reason to push her aside. And more shocking was the fact that Pakati accepted the memorandum and went back inside the city hall without addressing the incident that happened in his presence.
This was a missed opportunity to not only address the issue of his bodyguard, but genderbased violence in general, especially with August being Women’s Month.
As the metro’s first resident, someone who should be a model citizen, the mayor should be leading the fight against genderbased violence and other social ills.
While Pakati displayed poor leadership and an “I don’t care attitude”, President Cyril Ramaphosa afforded the marchers the respect they deserved by addressing them outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
Ramaphosa told them that gender-based violence made him “hang my head in shame”.
Kudos to the president but for Pakati we only have three words: shame on you.
Everyone needs to play their part if we are to end gender-based violence.
Until the likes of Pakati and other elected leaders take this scourge seriously, we will continue to fight a losing battle. But key to successfully ending the abuse of women, children and other vulnerable groups, is teaching young boys to treat women with respect and protect them against any harm. It’s time for every man to say “not in my name” and protect every child as if its their own, women as if they are their mothers or sisters.
It is possible to end gender-based violence.
Kudos to President Cyril Ramaphosa but for Pakati we only have three words: shame on you