The Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities said it regrets the disturbing number of rape cases that are being reported at different police stations across the country. The recent crime statistics show that between April and June this year, 9 309 rape cases and 6 198 murder cases were registered in just three months.
The Department said these statistics call upon society to be on high alert over the growing rape and murder culture of young girls and children in South Africa. Just over the last weekend, two provinces, Gauteng and Limpopo, witnessed brutal crimes and violence.
“This severe violence involved 16 and 19-year-old girls in Madikana village in Limpopo and also in Hammanskraal in Tshwane. The lifeless bodies of the 16-year-old from Madikana village, Limpopo province and the 19-year-old from Hammanskraal in Tshwane, were found in the bush and also under Babelegi Bridge in Hammanskraal,” said Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities spokesperson, Cassius Selala.
He further said: “The continuous disregard for women’s rights and their safety will never be normalised in South Africa. Women's rights are fundamental human rights that include the right to be free from violence and discrimination”.
Selala said the government has put in place systems such as the constitution and legislation aimed at fighting crime in our country.
He said advocacy for women's rights and gender mainstreaming are both important strategies for achieving gender equality and social justice through solid partnerships with communities, NGOs, and Community Policing Forums, as well as faith-based organisations.
Selala said there is a need to join hands in defending and protecting the rights of all South Africans particular, particularly women and again plead with communities to report cases of abuse on women, youth, and persons with disabilities to their nearest police stations,” he said.
According to the University of Cape Town’s Children Institute, the rape and murder of women and girl children is a distinct form of gender-based violence that combines two of the most extreme forms of violence against women and children.
“This study found that 494 of women murdered and 104 of the child murders in 2009 were linked to rape at the time of their murder. Rape-murder is therefore not a rare event in South Africa – the rape-murder rate for adult women is similar to the overall global murder rate of adult women,” said the institute.
Advocacy group Kathorus Parliament said it is concerned and 'not feeling' the department on the ground and said they don't even know who they are representing.
“We feel they seem concerned only when the stats are published or communicated or when it is 16 days of activism,” said Kathorus Parliament spokesperson Pearl Mazibuko.
She said currently they are in the Eastern Cape on two cases of young people who died prematurely and till date no justice prevailed, and they never entertained the matter when they escalated to them.
“We personally escalated a case of an old lady that was raped by a young person to the former Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who gladly gave us her PA's number infront of her, but when we started engaging the PA, it was like talking to a rock, no reply nor acknowledgement of our messages,
*Though they seemed keen and eager to assist, in terms of advocating for the old lady; that she finally receives justice, but they just went awol on us; until we learned that we are on our own as an NPO and pursued justice on behalf of the old lady, until the young man was found guilty and sentenced to 18 years,” said Mazibuko.
Saturday Star
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