by Ntando Makhubu
The hypocrisy of women in leadership knows no bounds, says Pretoria student Naledi Chirwa, who was among the four young women who staged a protest against President Jacob Zuma on Saturday.
“When they called for our heads, they confirmed this was true,” said the 23-year-old University of Pretoria student.
Chirwa held a placard on which was written “Kanga”, when the president was speaking after the declaration of the election results at the IEC's results operations centre.
She said the decision to protest had been spontaneous.
“We had not known that the president would be there; when we heard, we knew we had to do something,” she said.
She and the other three students did not know each other beyond being feminists and having been part of the #1in9 campaign to commemorate 10 years since Zuma’s rape trial and the fleeing of his alleged victim, Khwezi.
Chirwa is a political activist and member of the EFF Student Command, but said the protest had nothing to do with politics. They had been at the results all week and shared a common anger at the failure of the country to protect women.
“When Khwezi was raped, I was 13 and had no idea what was happening. But as I grew up and became the ‘one in three’, I realised the truth had to be spoken.”
She was referring to a campaign which gives women a chance to talk about rape and other issues.
They agreed on the protest and debated the best place to do it.
“We initially thought outside would be better, but when the idea of getting up on stage was made, we jumped onto it.”
They grabbed paper and wrote their messages, which read “I am 1 in 3”, “10 years later, Kanga” and “Remember Khwezi”.
“We wrote them randomly, and because ‘kanga’ stood for all that was wrong in Zuma’s testimony, I wrote that.”
The message was to the world and in support of Khwezi and all women who were raped and never saw justice.
“We refuse to be silenced to massage the feelings of patriarchy and misogynistic men; we are the generation that everyone had been waiting for and we will fulfil our role.”
She said it was a shame that women leaders had spoken out against their actions.
“They say we humiliated the president and breached security; the only person humiliated is Khwezi. She fled her home, lost her identity, and everything that was her security was breached, yet none of them asked Zuma why he did all of these (things).”
The four women were surprised when no one removed them until Zuma finished speaking. “And then the patriarchy reared its ugly head and both men and women grabbed us, pushed and shoved us, and used the most foul of language at us,” she said.
Chirwa was heard crying when she knocked her knee while being dragged out.
“We were threatened and insulted in obscene words. Tomorrow they will be singing ‘ wathint, abafazi, wathint imbokodo’, yet they touched and violated us in front of everyone.”