Violence against women and children has continued despite South Africa having the right policies and legal framework to prevent it, President Jacob Zuma said.
“In this regard, this country has the right policies and legal framework to protect women and children,” he said at the official launch of the 16 days of activism for no violence against women and children campaign.
“Despite this, the scourge of violence against women and children continues,” he told the crowd at the event in Reiger Park, Johannesburg.
The legislation promoted equality and aimed to prevent violence and protect victims of violence.
Zuma said the responsibility lay with citizens to implement the Constitution and laws.
“Twenty years into democracy, let us today make a commitment to work together harder than before, to make South Africa a society free of violence against women and children.”
Zuma said this year the campaign would reach out to men and boys, reiterating what Gauteng community safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane said earlier.
“We encourage greater participation, we urge young men and boys to become activists against gender-based violence,” Zuma said.
The lack of active participation of men in the campaign had been one of its serious shortcomings.
The 16 days campaign is held once a year to help prevent violence against women and children.
Recently three-year-old Cuburne Lavone van Wyk went missing, and his burnt body was found at a mine dump in Ramaphosa, Reiger Park.
A man was arrested and is due in court again in December.
The body of ten-year-old Siphamandla Madikane, from the Ramaphosa settlement, was found by a passer-by also at a mine dump in November last year.
Four-year-old Taegrin Morris from Delmore Gardens, near Reiger Park, died after his parents' car was hijacked.
He got stuck in the seatbelt and was dragged along the road and later found dead.
Earlier in November, the Boksburg Magistrate's Court withdrew all charges against Thamsanqa Twala, who had been accused of involvement in the death of the child, infuriating the community.
On Monday Gauteng premier David Makhura and a team of representatives of various departments met residents to discuss ways of dealing with the problems they faced.
Sapa