About one thousand women have presented a memorandum to the Mpumalanga Provincial Government in a bid to end gender based violence. The marchers comprised of women from Independent organisations, civil society, organised labour, faith based organisation and the community.
They marched from Man N4 Bus and Truck Depot to Mbombela Stadium where they handed over a memorandum to Mpumalanga Community Safety, Security and Liaison MEC Vusi Shongwe who was representing Premier DD Mabuza.
The march was part of Women’s Month planned activities to enhance government’s efforts to reach out to all women and support their economic empowerment and social emancipation.
Among others, they raised concerns about the number of gender based violence cases which were increasing habitually hence there was a need to sustain the campaign on violence against women and children for 365 days of a year.
They also called for government to provide enough resources to court systems to improve investigations of sexual offence cases in order to enhance conviction rate of rape and murder perpetrators in order to bring about justice to victims of gender based violence.
The marchers have also requested government to establish a hotline for the community to report all matters relating to gender based violence.
Speaking during the handover of the memorandum, Ms Wandile Sobahle who represented the Organised Labour said that unemployment of women highly contributed to them being vulnerable to abuse.
She said that government must create an environment which will empower women and provide them with job opportunities in order to make them independent.
Meanwhile, MEC Shongwe said that women must be respected and recognized not only during the Women’s month or during 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children but every day.
He added that the provincial government has already embarked on a 365 days year plan to promote the campaign of No Violence Against Women and Children.
Enquiries:
Joseph Mabuza
Cell: 082 678 1450
Tel: 013 766 4055
