Cape Town - Renewed calls against gender-based violence (GBV) echoed at the gates of Parliament at the weekend.
About 100 people took part in an anti-gender-based violence protest, on Saturday.
Protest organiser and anti-gender-based violence activist from Rondebosch Sascha Wharton-Hood said the protest was a precursor for the handing over of the anti-gender-based violence memorandum on Wednesday, in an effort to mobilise and collectively call for action to be taken.
“The movement appears to be dying, with more and more people becoming apathetic and passive every time another woman, child or LGBTQIA+ person is sexually assaulted, raped or murdered.
“The larger community seemed to become indifferent about the state of femicide in South Africa, hence, the protest was aimed to reignite the energy and motivation surrounding the anti-gender-based violence movement,” said Wharton-Hood.
I Hear You SA, 65 Years Movement, anti-GBV Stellenbosch University, and Future Females Foundation were present. Some addressed the placard-bearing crowd on the work done to educate and mobilise the public.
The memorandum to be handed over will address concerns around law enforcement and policing, public education and institutions, government policy transparency, and domestic violence and Covid-19.
“The primary focus at this time is addressing the impact of Covid-19 on domestic abuse and gender-based violence (GBV), concentrating on how social distancing and strict lockdown policies have enabled abusers to continue violence at a household level, as well as suggestions on how to alleviate and protect victims on a personal scale.”
Protestor, Ayesha Abou-Zeid, 22, from Tygerberg said: “I participated because I'm tired of gender-based violence happening in our country. I'm tired of being scared and I'm tired of South Africa being the rape capital of the world.
“I hoped to bring awareness to other civilians and hopefully inspire some people to also start taking action. We also wanted to get signatures from civilians to endorse our memorandum against GBV, that will be handed over to the government on Women's Day.”
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