North West Premier Thandi Modise has called on women to break the silence on rape and stop protecting perpetrators of sexual violence in their homes, workplaces, churches and communities. Premier Modise made the appeal in her keynote address delivered at the Provincial Interfaith Prayer Service held at Olympia Park in Rustenburg on Sunday.
“We should name and shame perpetrators. Teenage pregnancies in our schools point to decay in our moral fibre. We fail our children when we cannot be their role models. We demand truth and accountability from our educators, parents and politicians because our communities are demanding truth, stability and service delivery,” emphasised Premier Modise in formally launching a campaign against the scourge of rape and gender based violence.
The campaign aimed at getting signatures of a million people who are denouncing rape by signing a pledge against sexual abuse of women rape will be taken to a deeper and higher level with the involvement of faith based organisations, men organisations, non-government organisations, community organisations and other social partners. The targeted number of signatures is expected to be reached by the end of next month.
The National Interfaith Council of South Africa (NICSA) North West Chapter, North West FM and the North West Provincial Council on Aids are the latest partners to join the campaign that was initiated by Premier Modise. Motsweding FM is already a partner of the campaign that is supported by the Executive Council (Exco).
Modise said rape has reached an unacceptable levels and should be combated by all of us and called on all community members to join in the campaign to say no to high rate of rape taking place in the province and other part of the country.
“We are not going to sit back and do nothing as the provincial government about this sick behaviour of men who are raping innocent members of our communities. We are calling on all our people particularly men from non- governmental organisations, churches, youth and faith based organisations to join us as we say no to rape, this is a very important campaign which we intend to push very hard at all costs,” she stressed.
Two incidents of rape on elderly women were reported in the province last week, adding to the continued surge of rape and violence against women over the past months in the province.
Premier Modise urged thousand of believers gathered at the stadium to pray for the province and the entire country to put to an end high rate of attacks on women and children.
“As the provincial government, we have confidence and highly trust that our prayers today will play a key role in ending the scourge of rape happening in our beautiful country. We have confidence that through the prayer session today, more and more men will start to get a message that rape is something that must not happen anywhere in our society, women and children must be respected,” underscored Modise.
She thanked NICSA for mobilising believers from different faiths for the provincial interfaith prayer service and highlighted that the fight against crime and the scourge against crime is winnable if people work together. Chairperson of NICSA, Bishop Daniel Matebesi, also added his voice on calling for men to stop raping women and children.
“We are joining this campaign with our Premier to say enough is enough, men must stop with rape. We need to take a stand as responsible men and join in the campaign to stop this barbaric act,” he said.
Various religious groups prayed and added their voices to the call to end high rate of rape incidents in the province. Rasta Mojalefa, from the Rastafarian Faith Organisation said they have noted with concern high incident of rape in the province and promised to pray every day for the province.
“Our religious is very much against men who rape. We are saying rape is a wrong act that must be corrected by our fellow men,” he said.
Sheikh Magmoed, from Islamic Faith Organisation also shared the same sentiments and joined the call to fight against rape.
“We have started to pray to God to protect our children and women in the province. We are very sure that God will also assist men to understand that rape especially innocent children are wrong acts that must stop immediately,” he said.
Enquiries:
Lesiba Moses Kgwele, Spokesperson
Tel: 018 388 3705
Cell: 083 629 1987
Fax: 018 388 3157
E-mail: LKgwele@gmail.com
