Cape Town - About 100 people marched to the Western Cape legislature in Cape Town on Thursday to protest against violent attacks on women and children.
The march, led by the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL), left from Keizergracht Street and ended in Wale Street.
Organisations which took part included the Positive Men's Movement of SA, the National Association of People With Aids, and the SA National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders.
The largely female crowd were decked out in yellow and green ANC shirts.
They sheltered from the scorching sun with their “Stop rape and abuse” posters. A seven-month-old baby in attendance wore a shirt with the words: “Stop killing babies”.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga addressed the crowd but struggled to be heard because of a high-pressure water sprayer nearby. At her side was Women, Children, and People with Disabilities Minister Lulu Xingwana.
Two provincial ANC officials handed over a memorandum of demands to the provincial government, housed in the same building.
The memo called for government to support a campaign in not granting bail to suspected rapists and to implement a detailed strategy to tackle gender-based violence, among other things.
The group marched in memory of five young women and a child who were recently killed.
The most notable case was the gang-rape, murder, and mutilation of Anene Booysen, 17, in Bredasdorp three weeks ago..
The body of Ge-Audrey Bianca Green, 19, of Scottsville was recently found stashed in a drawer beneath a bunk bed, and a week ago the body of 18-year-old Jo-Anne Diane van Schalkwyk was found in bushes near Atlantis.
On Monday, Melandri Bukkies, 20, was stabbed and killed in her Atlantis home, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend.
At the end of the last year, five-year-old Lilitha Mgwebi went missing while playing with friends in Khayelitsha.
Her body was found on a bed in a nearby locked shack in January.
Sapa