Students, Potch community urged to take a stand against GBV
Students and community members of Potchefstroom took a stand against gender-based violence (GBV) and joined the EFF youth command on a peaceful march in response to the #JusticeforCwecwe movement.
“For us as the EFF youth command this march against gender-based violence and child abuse is important and we as the community are standing up because we know that GBV is pandemic in our country,” said Fikile Mangengenene of the EFF youth command.
“Children and women are being abused, harassed and raped all over the country and we cannot be silent as a nation, hence we are saying to the community let’s meet and make a difference” he said.
The protesters gathered at Cachet Park on the Bult on 2 April alongside the EFF youth command and other organisations, including the ANC and the student organisation SASCO. The march proceeded from Cachet Park to the North West Department of Education’s Dr Kenneth Kaunda district office in OR Tambo Street, where the memorandum of demand was presented to the officials of the department.
According to Times Live the #JusticeforCwecwe movement is based on a petition that was calling for justice for a seven-year-old girl known as Cwecwe, who was allegedly raped at her school, Bergview College, in Matatiele in the Eastern Cape.
In support of Mangengenene, Lesego Legwete, the JB Marks municipality’s coordinator for GBV, LGBTQIA+ and women’s issues, added: “We have a rape case that we are dealing with currently that happened at Riverwalk mall during business hours…While you were busy buying chips a lady was being raped in the backroom. The trial is happening on Monday [7April].”
“Make no mistake, everybody is either affected or knows a person who is affected by GBV. It shapes who we are, our mental state, our perspective, and relationships with each other.
“Do not let this march be in vain. April is sexual assault awareness month, so remind your people that ‘no’ means ‘no’ and to take responsibility. Let us be accountable, and focus on being better people,” Legwete said.
One of the student protesters Amukelani Siweya said, “ It’s more than just justice for Cwecwe, it’s justice for every individual whose innocence was taken advantage of. It’s justice for the individuals who couldn’t speak about what traumatised them, it’s justice for those who could not get help at police stations, it’s not just for one person, it’s for everyone in the country who was taken advantage of.”
Thabang Amani from the Xhosa Society, who also participated in the march as a campus organisation, and Mulweli Masikwha, who is a member of the JB Marks EFF sub-region, read the memorandum before it was handed to the department.
The demands in the memorandum include: the reinforcement of school security, the inclusion of GBV and child abuse prevention programmes into school curriculums and the immediate suspension and disciplinary action against staff at Bergview College who might have been negligent in the Cwecwe incident.
Nosie Seokolo, the Deputy Chief Education Specialist at the district office, told protesters: “[W]e are not going to throw it in the dustbin. The department will respond to whatever needs to be responded to and elevate those [demands] that are supposed to be overseen by other offices”. – By Amike Viljoen & Siphesihle Nhlapo