South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has told his compatriots that the country was now fighting two pandemics against the coronavirus and gender based violence (GBV) whose victims are women and children.
In an impassioned speech to the nation on Wednesday evening, a disappointed president told South Africa’s abusive men to end their “barbaric attacks” against women and children immediately.
With the current spate of murders of women and children in the past two weeks, Ramaphosa said the country was now waging wars on two fronts: against COVID-19 and against GBV.
“As a man, as a husband and as a father, I am appalled at what is no less than a war being waged against women and children of our country,” Ramaphosa said.
He noted that at a time when the coronavirus pandemic “has left us all feeling vulnerable and uncertain, violence is being unleashed on women and children with a brutality that defies comprehension.”
“These rapists and killers walk among us. They are in our communities. The perpetrators are fathers, brothers, sons and friends.
“(These are) violent men with utterly no regard for the sanctity of human life,” he said, adding that the offenders should be reported to the police.”
Over the past few weeks, some 21 South African women and children have been murdered in various parts of the country, and their bodies dumped in the bush or isolated areas.
“Their killers thought they could silence them but we will not forget them. We will speak for them where they cannot,” the president said, as he honoured the victims by citing their names.
The presidency said that Ramaphosa and his Cabinet have decided, using the new National Strategic Plan against GBV, to wage war against the vice with the same zeal and energy as Pretoria has done for the COVID-19 fight to eradicate gender-based malpractices in the country.
NM/jn/APA