Tshwane University of Technology students who reside at Pretoria West, at Little Manhattan student residence gathered together on 20 August 2021 to stand up against the Gender Based Violence that is taking place in the country.
According to an anonymous source this event took place because of two reasons, being, they saw a video trending of a boyfriend physically assaulting his girlfriend for unknown reasons and the other reason being to commemorate women icons who stood for women's rights in South Africa since its women's month.
One of the resident committee members, Miss Mpumelelo Hlophe, said that in most cases the act of GBV occurs when the is an extraordinary sign of jealousy in any relationship, between those specific individuals.
The theme for the day was “we urge everyone to come and enjoy the day with us to stop the abuse against women”, however the GBV awareness campaign was also to educate students to accept the Lesbian Gays Bisexual Transgender Queer Intersex community.
“Gender Based Violence is a violation of an individuals human rights because once you start acting in an unpleasant manner you simply violating how one should conduct and present themselves in that particular situation,” said Mpumelelo.
Members of the TUT South African Students Congress (SASCO), Miss Simangele Dinuba and Miss Sihawukele Mlambo, were also part of this initiative to share their experiences and views regarding GBV.
Simangele as a guest speaker from the SASCO organization at Pretoria campus, said that one of the inducements why men still forces themselves to women is because of the indigenous beliefs that men have more power than women and that things should go according to their lead.
According to a report conducted by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), notes that rape targeting women and girls is one of the biggest and also a leading factor of Gender Based Violence facing South Africa. It also suggests that 250 out of every 100 000 women are victims of sexual offences.
This was supported by a report by the South African Police Services stating that 80% of the sexual offences reported in 2016 and 2017 were rape.
“The motive and aim of the event seem to be met, because when we organized this event, we wanted to provide a forum for a dialogue and strategy-sharing of GBV and we did exactly that today”, Sihawukele said.
Residents of Little Manhattan joined the campaign in large numbers and closed off the event by lighting candles and sang the national anthem “Nkosi sikelela Africa” to pray for deliverance, and also to honor and pay respect to women and girls who lost their lives due to GBV.
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