Johannesburg - The ANC has broken its silence on youth league leader Patrick Wisani – who allegedly murdered his girlfriend, Nosipho Mandleleni, last weekend by sjambokking her to death – saying domestic violence will not be tolerated in its ranks.
The Gauteng ANC Youth League says it would not tolerate any kind of abuse by any member.
Wisani is the league’s chairman for the Joburg Inner City and Yeoville, as well as a former member of the local community policing forum.
“The growing levels of violence and domestic violence in particular in our country are worrisome to say the least,” said Gauteng youth league spokeswoman Mbali Hlophe.
Domestic violence is a frequent crime “yet it remains hidden”.
Hlophe said Wisani’s charges, if proven, were a brutal wake-up call to a country celebrated across the world for its human rights laws. She quoted a 2013 World Health Organization study that showed 50 percent of the South African women surveyed reported suffering emotional and verbal abuse.
A Medical Research Council study went further, Hlophe said, and found that one in two women who had been murdered had been killed by their partners.
“Succinctly put, one can only conclude from these stats that men are a danger to women. As an organisation, our (position) remains that of building a non-sexist, non-racial, democratic and prosperous South Africa, where men and women alike from all walks of life can live in harmony and peace.”
The ANC Women’s League in the province has also come out strongly in condemning the murder while saying it also respects judicial processes.
Gauteng women’s league spokeswoman Jacqui Mofokeng said the league has assigned regional executive committee members to meet with the slain woman’s family.
“We welcome the statement of the ANCYL and we will also be on their side, especially because Patrick Wisani is one of our own, which is even worse,” she said.
“Discipline starts with us (as the ANC) and we condemn whatever he did and we say it should never happen to anyone and we don’t want it to happen to any other person.”
Mofokeng said domestic violence was insidious as she demanded answers as to how Wisani was apparently able to sjambok his girlfriend to death. She added she hoped these were answers the court would be able to give. “How can someone be killed with a sjambok, and how long did this thing (go on) ... how long has the man been beating a woman with a sjambok that she actually died?” she asked. “The most important thing is, why was there a killing? There is no man, and nobody, who has the right to do that. Patriarchal tendencies should be nipped in the bud for a young man.”
Wisani is under arrest.
Mandleleni, just 24, will be buried next week in the Eastern Cape.
Political Bureau