The pandemic of violence against women and their murder by intimate partners has come into sharp focus in the National Assembly.
Some Members of Parliament are urging President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare a national emergency, while others are calling for harsher sentences for perpetrators and a return of the death penalty.
Members of Parliament are debating Women’s Day, and there’s cross-party agreement that the levels of violence are unacceptably high.
The debate takes place a day after the discovery of the body of 19-year-old missing UCT student Uyinene Mrwetyana who was raped and murdered by a Post Office employee when she went to pick up a parcel in Claremont, Cape Town – and just one among a long list of victims.
Democratic Alliance MP Nazley Sharif wore black to identify with women and girl children who’ve died at the hands of men.
“When we speak about equality, we must speak of social equality, the ability to do everyday things – like going to do our nails, going to the clinic, going to buy bread without fear. To feel as safe and secure as men do.”
Economic Freedom Fighters MP Mmabatho Mokause lashed the government for inaction: “Our girl children, our sisters, are under attack – but this remains business as usual for the ruling party.”
Inkatha Freedom Party MP Liezl van der Merwe suggested President Cyril Ramaphosa follow the route of Sierra Leone’s president and declare gender-based violence an emergency.
You might also like – Clashes between Nigerians and SA nationals cause further chaos in Kempton Park
People have been urged to stay away from the Kempton CBD after shots were fired.
People were being evacuated from Festival Mall after lunchtime, the Kempton Express reports, following news that rubber bullets were being fired on potential looters along Pretoria Road in Kempton Park.
Although the crowd was being dispersed the fear was there they might regroup and cause more chaos, so roads remained closed. People were urged to avoid the area. The situation in the Kempton Park central business district had been tense all day following alleged clashes between South African and Nigerian nationals earlier on Tuesday. read more
Source – EWN
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
