Gauteng minister of community safety Firoz Cachalia has called on victims of family violence and abused children who are unhappy with police service to report complaints to his office, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Saturday.
Cachalia launched the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children campaign in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria.
”I want to encourage people who are unhappy with their experience to report these matters to my department so that we can take corrective action,” Cachalia said.
A social support centre had been set up for abuse victims in Johannesburg. ”It is really a place of hope because we provide people with a complex set of support services, apart from ensuring that their cases are effectively investigated.”
Hundreds of people were expected to march in Johannesburg on Saturday afternoon in the annual campaign to raise awareness of violence against women and children.
Gender Links’s executive director, Colleen Lowe Morna, said the march would mark the beginning of the 16-day campaign.
The march — organised jointly by Gender Links, the City of Johannesburg and People Opposing Women Abuse — was to end with the launch of a book highlighting the plight of women and children in the country.
Morna said the book, called I Stories, contains 20 stories about surviving gender violence.
About 60 international delegates from 22 countries were expected to participate in the march ”with the intention to assess management of gender violence in South Africa”.
Johannesburg
About 1 000 women and a few men teetered in stilettos through a Johannesburg suburb earlier on Saturday in a demonstration symbolising the pain suffered by battered women and children in South Africa.
The 3km ”Sisters with Blisters” walk in high-heeled shoes was to draw attention to the plight of victims of rampant levels of violence partly blamed on macho attitudes, poverty and a violent society.
About 55 000 case of rape were reported to South African police last year and many more victims are said not to notify authorities.
”It is a little bit of pain to gain some awareness,” said Lulu Ndevu, of radio station and sponsor Jacaranda 94.2.
A few marchers paused briefly to shake their feet or wrap plasters around bloody toes. At the finishing line they were treated to foot massages and spa vouchers, and the grand prize was a R95 000 shoe-shopping spree to New York City.
”It’s abusing yourself for women who suffer, except this is self-inflicted,” said Albert Lotter (25), hunched and hobbling in size-10 turquoise pumps.
The United Nations Committee against Torture expressed concern this week at ”widespread” acts of violence against women and children in South Africa, particularly rape and domestic violence.
Health activists say violence against females also fuels the Aids epidemic in a country with one of the highest caseloads — about 5,5-million are infected in a population of 45-million.
Cape Town
Also on Saturday, scores of people, including a number of schoolchildren, took part in a march against violence in central Cape Town. Among the marchers were city mayor Helen Zille, church leaders and senior Western Cape police officials.
One of the organisers, Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, said the event followed in the tradition of the Men’s March that has been held every year since 2000.
”This year we have called it a march against violence because of the general levels of violence in our schools and community, as well as abuse of women and children,” he said.
”We come here to demonstrate our abhorrence of this violence … and to say yes to the dignity of everyone created in God’s image, irrespective of gender, irrespective of age. Evil triumphs when good people do nothing.” — Sapa, Reuters