More than 50 Khayelitsha residents marched from Ntlazane Road to Walter Sisulu Road in Enkanini informal settlement to raise awareness about violence in the area last Thursday.
The residents, dressed in bright yellow bibs, began their march at 6am and finished at 10am, all the while singing and waving placards denouncing violence against children and women. They called on men to stop raping children and instead, play an active role in building their families and society at large.
Community leader, Lebo Maboyana, said the recent rapes and attacks on children in their community propelled them to take a firm stand against abuse and violence on women and children.
Ms Maboyana said women and children no longer felt safe in the community and they wanted to send a strong message that crime would not be tolerated. But most importantly, she said, they specifically wanted men to be at the forefront of such gatherings and reprimand their peers.
She also called on mothers not to protect their sons if they know they have been involved in crime. This same call she also put out to the community who sometimes harboured criminals or didn’t report crime.
“We are here today to say that we have had enough of being abused and raped. Stop raping and abusing our children,” she said.
“We want more police visibility in our community. We want to feel safe in our homes and streets. We have no space for criminals in our communities. We want to reclaim our community. We can’t stand and watch while the future of our children is ruined. We want our children to be just children and not fear that they might abused or raped,” she said. She also called on courts to hand out heavier sentences to abusers of women and children so that it teaches lessons to others.
Resident Nokubonga Yilo said she joined the march because she wanted to raise her voice against the torture and abuse woman endured at the hands of men.
Ms Yilo said men should protect them as opposed to killing and raping women. She believes that men should have mentoring programmes for boys so that they could change their perceptions and behaviour towards women and girls. Founder of Free Gender, Funeka Soldaat, said such marches were important to highlight that violence and abuse committed against women and children will never be tolerated.