Image Source: News24
Local – Despite President Cyril Ramaphosa unveiling a four-point recovery plan to intensify the fight against gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma said the measures fell short and urged government to treat the crisis with the urgency it demands.
The recovery plan aims to strengthen the systems of policing, investigation, forensic processing, prosecution and community safety needed to protect women and children and ensure access to justice.
Its measures include a national case-recovery operation focused on unresolved murders, attempted murders, rapes and serious sexual offences involving women and children, as well as a plan to reduce forensic backlogs and improve turnaround times for priority GBVF cases.
However, Ngobese-Zuma said the plan lacked the legal teeth needed to deal with perpetrators. She called for a complete legislative overhaul to fast-track prosecutions, tighten bail, and open a national debate on harsher sentences for offenders.
“I feel like it’s actually even sad that the president announced such a soft measure. What we require as a country is a change of legislation completely to make sure that the enforcement of laws when it comes to especially issues of GBV and crime in general are fast-tracked so that the people who are committing these crimes get what they deserve and off our streets as quickly as possible.”
Day Of Action, Not A Deadline
The movement marched against GBV on 30 September, a date many had believed was a deadline for illegal migrants to leave the country. Ngobese-Zuma dismissed that belief, saying March and March does not issue deadlines but rather sets dates of action.
She said the protest was sparked in part by complaints from women about poor policing at the Kempton Park Police Station, and that the movement’s mandate extends beyond its well-known anti-illegal immigration stance.
“We’re not just about illegal immigration. We are also about putting South Africans first. We’ve emphasised this several times… So we will not be boxed into just being about illegal immigration. We are everything that is about putting South Africans first.”
Hypocrisy Claims Rejected
According to reports, activists accused some members of the movement of subjecting migrant women to violence, arguing this makes its stance against gender-based violence hypocritical. Ngobese-Zuma rejected the claims and questioned the reports’ credibility.
She said the movement’s position was based on enforcing the country’s immigration laws, and that the majority of migrants in South Africa are men rather than women and children. She challenged critics to provide evidence of any wrongdoing.
“So if they’re saying that we’ve done something, then they must give you that something that they say that we’ve done. And telling us that we’ve displaced women and children is actually not even a thing.”
