Deputy Secretary General of the EFF Poppy Ramaise Mailola says police must provide progress reports on longstanding gender-based violence cases. Mailola was speaking at an anti-gender-based violence march in Mahikeng in North West.
This follows the brief appearance of Karabo Bahurutshe at the Mmabatho Magistrates Court in connection with the murder of Gomolemo Legae in December last year.
The EFF demanded the re-enrollment of the murder case of Lerato Moema who was allegedly stabbed eight times by her boyfriend in Dibate village in 2018.
The killing of a 5-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and killed by a ward councillor in 2018 as well as the matter of five year old who was murdered by a 17-year-old boy in Tigane were also highlighted.
Mailola says Thuthuzela and Crises Centres reported about 200 cases related to GBV in the province.
Yesterday, residents of Boitumelong township in Bloemhof in the North West, called on the courts to impose life sentences on all perpetrators of gender-based violence.
The call was made during a peaceful march in which protesters handed over a memorandum of demands to the department of justice and constitutional development in Bloemhof.
Community members say the scourge of GBV continues unabated in their area.
“Enough is enough, we are tired. In the past Bloemhof was a peaceful place but now we are even afraid of walking at night because it is not safe. All the perpetrators against women [abuse] we calling on government to impose life sentence against them. Because these people do not stay long in prison,” say some residents.
The march was led by a member of national parliament deployed in the area, Sylvia Lucas.
When handing over the memorandum, Lucas promised to bring the concerns of the residents to the relevant ministers. – By Sylvester Serame
