A group of women is gathering in Roodepoort to take a stand against gender-based violence.
FILE: A mourner holds a placard demanding justice for Tshegofatso Pule at her funeral in Meadowlands, Soweto. The murdered 28-year-old was laid to rest on 11 June 2020. Picture: Kayleen Morgan/EWN
JOHANNESBURG – Women using this Heritage Day to take a stand against gender-based violence by marching through the streets of Johannesburg are urging the president to declare the ongoing attack on women’s bodies “a national crisis”.
A group of women is gathering in Roodepoort. Among those expected to march are families who lost relatives to gender-based violence – including the loved ones of Tshegofatso Pule.
Pule was eight months pregnant when she was killed in Johannesburg earlier this year. Her body was found hanging from a tree.
Palesa Ndarala is one of the organisers of today’s march and she said they were expecting Pule’s family to join them.
“Women are being kidnapped and killed. Children are being raped and killed. The justice system is quiet and the president is quiet. So our disrupting traffic today is us wanting the president to take note of the burning issue. We are afraid, we can’t go anywhere,” said Ndarala.
“Men must stop sexualising us. Men should stop having a sense of entitlement over our bodies.”
#GBVmarch Women taking a stand against GBV this heritage day are staging a march through the streets of Joburg this morning, demanding that men stop sexualizing and hurting women, in thee name of “culture”. ML pic.twitter.com/90vy9kccDo
— EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) September 24, 2020