Civil group Right to Know (R2K) is rallying behind Sbongile Mngoma.
This after her top was stripped off by the police.
The R2K has since written an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa seeking for his intervention in the plight of artists.
Part of the statement reads: “Last week, offices of the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture shut doors during working hours after five artists who were there to meet with Minister Nathi Mthethwa clashed with the police.
The nation witnessed harrowing scenes as the police manhandled musician Sibongile Mngoma, ripping her blouse off and leaving her half-naked. We strongly condemn the manner in which the police have dealt with the protesting artists. It has now become the duty of every citizen to hold the police accountable. We have witnessed a woman abused in public, stripped of her clothes, her breasts touched by SAPS officers and her movement restricted. This abuse is happening in a country that has declared gender-based violence as a second pandemic. A country where women are violated every day. The SAPS appear to be conducting themselves as thugs with sheer arrogance and display extreme power and impunity. Was this woman sexually harassed? We now call for intervention from the president of South Africa,” said Verushka Memdutt, R2K’s national working group member, said there’s a need for the president to hold his ministers and their staff to account.
Verushka said: “We are extremely concerned about the safety of the artists seeking answers from the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture. We call on President Ramaphosa to guarantee their safety.”
Verushka also called for the removal of Mthethwa.
“It is clear that the minister cannot cope and he should be removed from this portfolio. If there is nothing to hide, why is Sibongile not getting answers. Why does it seem as though there is a concealment of some sort? The enquiries being made by Sibongile and her colleagues are not selfish but rather for the sector. They have the right to know.”
Verushka said it takes selfless people to request accountability for an entire sector.
“If the current minister does not serve his office as per his mandate, there is no need for him to be sitting in the office. Holding people accountable is no security threat,” she said.
Verushka told Daily Sun that should the president fail to intervene, they will use other means to draw his attention.
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