Test case for commitment

WR5 000 bail. women. actions. rights. OMEN’S Month got off to an inauspi- cious start with the news Deputy Min- ister for Higher Education Mduduzi Manana had been embroiled in a spat with a woman at a Joburg nightclub in the early hours of Sunday morning. The event, captured on cellphone, was an as- sault. Manana, recorded by the victim’s brother, admitted as much. His party, the ANC, dithered – mouthing platitudes condemning violence against women, but stopping short of speaking on the merits of Manana’s case, of which there were none. The usually irrepressible Police Minister Fikile Mbalula issued warnings and threatened an im- minent arrest, irrespective of Manana’s standing, but even here “imminent” soon morphed into that other South African term “now now”. By Wednesday when the president delivered his Women’s Day address, vowing fire and brimstone against those who harm women, Manana was still at liberty. On Thursday he appeared in the Rand- burg Magistrate’s court only to be released on It is this kind of equivocation that explains why we are no closer to outlawing violence against We won’t stop violence while there remain people who will look for excuses, for “provoca- tion”, to excuse, or at best mitigate, the aggressor’s Let us make this newspaper’s standpoint clear: there can never be an excuse for a man to beat up a woman, whether in an upmarket night club or in the family home, any more than a woman can provoke sexual assault by wearing a short skirt or showing cleavage. Manana will become a test case for the govern- ment and the ruling party on the proof of their commitment not just to women’s rights, but human