DURBAN - PREMIER Sihle Zikalala honoured women during the provincial Women’s Day event in uMuziwabantu Local Municipality, south of Durban, on Monday.
The event was themed, The Year of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke: Realising Women’s Rights, and focused on celebrating the brave women, across all faiths and races, who marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, on August 9, 1956, for a free and democratic society. The women demanded an end to Pass Laws, which prevented women from owning property and limited their movement.
“Let us remember them by elevating our women, from all professions and walks of life, to the status of heroines. Women were still, to a large extent, facing economic exclusion. They face poverty, inequality and unemployment,” Zikalala said.
“More distressing is that women and children are vulnerable to violence, in every sphere of society. South Africa is a violent society. Let us acknowledge that without reservation. Let us acknowledge that with shame.”
Zikalala said gender-based violence (GBV) was “an ugly sore on the face of our nation”.
“Far from being a refuge of peace and tranquillity, our homes are very frequently crime scenes – where women are beaten, raped or killed, often at the hands of intimate partners,” Zikalala said.
He urged the community to report crimes and said that culture must not be used to cover up crimes.
“We must isolate the perpetrators of GBV. Call them out, even if they are close to us. To protect them is to put our grandmothers, our mothers, our partners, our sisters at risk,” the premier added.
Zikalala said that social cohesion and moral regeneration would be enriched through ensuring that women have access to the economy, access to available opportunities, and demonstrable actions that would lead to poverty eradication, and put an end to inequality, unemployment and racism.
He thanked those involved in changing the narrative and stereotypes, by teaching young men and boys that women were equal and also had rights.
Meanwhile, DA KZN leader and MPL Francois Rodgers, alongside DAWN KZN leader Shehana Kajee, and the constituency head and MP Haniff Hoosen, commemorated Women's Day by visiting women living in Emona township, in oThongathi.
“What I saw was people living in abject poverty. It is a community of Indians and Africans, who live side by side. I heard stories of women who were brutally murdered in the township. One was a 20-year-old, who was killed and kept in a shack for days by her boyfriend.
“The other young woman, a breadwinner, was stabbed 36 times by her husband. Their young lives were snatched, just like that, by the hands of their partners.
“What are we celebrating? Women are under attack,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers felt that the ANC-led government continued to fail women and children in the province.
“Two of our police stations in the province, Inanda and uMlazi SAPS, continue to reflect poorly, with an increase in cases of 4.5% and 9.2%, respectively. It was also revealed that KZN currently has a staggering 8 388 DNA forensic case backlog, dating back as far as February 2020. A total of 5 400 of the cases relate to sexual assault,” Rodgers said.
“These often lead to high arrest rates and low conviction rates, while the turnaround time to respond to complaints also remains a challenge.”
According to Rodgers, fighting such crime effectively would entail every police station having a well-resourced victim support centre, that would provide an atmosphere of safety and comfort for the victims.
Their visit was aimed at establishing the trials and tribulations that women in this community faced, and the kind of intervention that they wanted from the government.
Daily News