City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba is being slammed on social media for equating sanitary pads with s-e-x.
Mashaba was commenting on a picture purporting to show Minister of Environmental Affairs Nomvula Mokonyane handing over packs of pads to a group of Grade R pupils.
Are these fake news? These children deserve books and toys pic.twitter.com/K0pyr9sHeq
— Herman Mashaba (@HermanMashaba) January 11, 2019
While Mashaba’s initial comment was in no way offensive, subsequent tweets in which he criticises government for “getting pupils to focus on s-e-x.
Mokonyane later set the record straight, explaining that the sanitary pads were in fact meant for older pupils but that there were also Vodacom gift packs which were being handed out to Grade Rs. Social media was ablaze with comments criticising Mashaba.
Your ignorance is shocking. Many girls miss school due the menstrual cycle. There’s nothing about sex here is just nature. How dumb
— khulekani njokweni (@bukudu) January 11, 2019
It’s very clear you don’t understand a woman’s body. Menstruation is very far from sex, maybe closer to pregnancy. It is humiliating for a girl to have menstrual blood on her clothes in public.
— Caroline de Wet (@carolinedewet) January 11, 2019
Herman. Kindly explain, in detail, how menstruation is linked to sex [25 marks]
— Kirsty Bisset (@KirstyBisset) January 11, 2019
I dont even know how to respond to this shocking statement. My advice, retract it and apologise, Twitter does expose our foolish grey areas at times.
— Thabiso Kotane (@Thabisoo) January 11, 2019
https://twitter.com/_Juliet_xx/status/1083688849958686720
Source: IOL