Hundreds of people have taken to the streets of Cape Town, to call for an end to women and child abuse. The activists and supporters of the #100MenMarch, demonstrated to Parliament.
Marchers were united in one goal, saying…. “enough is enough”. They want society to stand up against women and child abuse.
For how long are we going to have to gather like this to speak on the same issue every year? How long till we see real action against perpetrators of this injustice? This calls for greater action from all sectors to stand together and put an end to this problem. #100MenMarch pic.twitter.com/yqYCxVxZDN
— Patricia de Lille (@PatriciaDeLille) July 12, 2018
This follows a high spate of femicide incidents and child killings in the country in recent months. On Thursday, the demonstrators called on authorities to act against perpetrators of these incidents.
The theme of the march was “100 Men March for Mandela and Sisulu, for no Violence Against Women and Children”.
The Western Cape Justice Department said its had the highest number of domestic violence cases in the country. It’s only managed to finalise seven thousand cases, out of the 40 thousand reported.
“I want to put a challenge to all men who are here today that each one of you, must go out and recruit 10 or 20 more men and give them the message that you’re getting here today that we mustall work together to stop women and child abuse,” said Patricia de Lille.
Police have been warned not to turn victims away.
“We have taken the initiative to make sure we educate our own police offices to understand how to treat women that are having problems, not to send back and then at the end of the day they come back as a corpse, they are dead bodies. So we are saying police must not send people back. Go and investigate and make sure you get proper information,” said Deputy Police Minister, Bongani Mkongi.
The Police Minister says Cabinet is working on a plan to change the bail and parole systems for these cases.
They are also lobbying for increased sentences for such crimes.