The Uyinene Mrwetyana Foundation hosted an awareness walk in Beacon Bay on August 27 to highlight the ongoing scourge of gender-based violence in SA.
The marchers took part in a 5km walk from the Beacon Bay Country Club.
Joining the march were various public servants, NGO volunteers, university students and community members.
Masimanyane Women’s Rights International programme manager, Farida Myburgh, said it was encouraging to see different organisations, government departments and the community uniting in the fight against GBV.
Myburgh said Masimanyane had been working closely with the Uyinene Mrwetyana Foundation to provide sensitisation training for their volunteers.
This was part of the work Masimanyane had been doing training stakeholders on the new GBV Bills signed into power.
“The challenge with this is that the SAPS have not been trained yet about these Bills and so the implementing arms of the Bills are not equipped to carry [this out] on the ground.
“We are equipping women as much as possible and we will continue to do that but we need the SAPS to come on board as without them no real reform will be enacted.”
Myburgh said it was encourging that many young professionals had pledged their time and resources to the Uyinene Mrwetyana Foundation to assist survivors.
DA councillor Sue Bentley said: “Most NGOs have amazing programmes and most government programmes are amazing but at all levels, implementation is non-existent.
“As the DA, we think the biggest problem is the minister of police as GBV has escalated under his watch.”
The MEC for social development’s spokesperson, Busisiwe Mantashe, said the department was encouraging partnerships with NGOs working on the ground, especially with respect to intimate partner violence.
“We feel this problem lies in the psyche of men and we want to change this so we are encouraging relationships between ourselves and NGOs working directly with men to encourage unlearning, self-reflection and transformation within the psyche of men.
“We need men who are going to stand up and call each other out.
“Men live with their friends knowing that they rape, knowing that they kill, knowing that they violate women and they dare not say no.
“Until we get to a point where men stand up and say no they are not going to be friends with a perpetrator, we will not fight this scourge,” Mantashe said. Three years since her murder, the legacy of East London’s Uyinene Mrwetyana continues to inform the urgent work that organisations are doing to combat GBV.
Durban-based The Good Men Foundation was launched in honour of Mrwetyana in 2019 and is one of many organisations established since to fight the scourge.
Mrwetyana’s mother, Nomangwane Mrwetyana said: “It’s been three years, it hasn’t been an easy journey and even today as we are commemorating her life, it is a bittersweet moment in that we would have loved her to be here instead, but the foundation is continuing its work and we are receiving a lot of support from NGOs and even the government.
“As the family, we are comforted to see the support her legacy is receiving.”
Former police official, Glen Schwartz, who stopped to watch the procession with his daughter, said: “I want my little girl to see this so she will know that no man should ever put his hands on her, no matter what.”
