Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) President, Kgosi Larmeck Mokoena has urged people of South Africa to emulate the late struggle stalwart Nelson Mandela and fight against Gender-based Violence.
When President Cyril Ramaphosa was addressing the nation on easing lockdown restrictions, he mentioned 21 women and children have been murdered in South Africa since the lockdown began.
Mokoena says as the country celebrates Nelson Mandela’s birthday people should go back to doing things traditionally to ensure safety of women and children.
More than 20 women and children were killed when the country first went into lockdown.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the spate of femicide was another pandemic that was raging in the country alongside Covid19.
In one horrific incident a body of a 28-year-old Tshegofatso Pule who was eight months pregnant was found stabbed and hanged.
In this video below, the Funeral Service of Tshegofatso Pule:
Contralesa President says Mandela would not be happy to see men failing to protect women and children.
Mokoena has urged traditional leaders to lead the fight against women and children abuse to honour the legacy left by Mandela.
“It is always a pleasure to remember our icon, former president Nelson Mandela. We want to urge our people to go back to our roots and look at all those things that united South Africans. We want to urge our people to condemn, discourage Gender-based Violence. As traditional leadership, we want to urge people to go back to our roots and make sure that when a woman sees a man you see a protector, not an enemy. I want to urge all aMakhosi to stand up and unite and fight against all ills that Mandela would not have approved.”
Mokoenas’s sentiment was echoed by social commentator, Jerry Khoza.
Khoza says people of South Africa have forgotten their origin. He says men must embrace what Mandela and the rest of our struggle heroes fought for.
He also called on traditional leaders to take their rightful place and provide leadership in their communities.
“The mistake that happens is that we have lost ourselves. We lost what we called ubuntu. We lost our culture. Remember back then we used to have leadership from our villages where we will have a chief; we will have induna; ee will have people who assist in chieftaincy. But now the challenge is that structure is no longer existing and the worse part, before, when you were marrying a woman you were not going to marry a woman without informing the chief and that was going to assist the chief to interfere or to come in when there was any quarrel or any fight.”
Mokoena has reiterated the call to the Department of Education to prioritise learners’ issues, especially in rural areas as they are the ones who will be hit hard by the spread of the coronavirus.
