President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised to end the scourge of women abuse in the country. Ramaphosa gave a keynote address during the Women’s Day Celebrations that were held at the Union Buildings in Pretoria today. Amongst notable government officials were Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi and Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who was appointed the Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities earlier this year.

THE FIGHT AGAINST GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

Speaking to hundreds of women that came out in large numbers to attend the celebration, Ramaphosa said that it was worrying that the statistics are very high when it comes to Gender-Based Violence. "We continue to see more violence perpetrated by men on women and children. Women don’t feel safe in their homes or in the streets. We have to ensure to address the abuse of women in the hands of men," he said.

WATHINT’ ABAFAZI, WATHINT’ IMBOKODO

Ramaphosa said that the country continues to see high incidents of Gender-Based Violence in the country. "We have decided to get to a stage where we say "wathint’ abafazi, wathint’ imbokodo. We have implemented tougher bail conditions on Gender-Based Violence perpetrators, if you touch a woman, no bail for you. When you kill a woman, life sentence for you. No police bail will be granted to rape perpetrators, such must be applied in court. In my book, all rape perpetrators must not get bail. The serial rapist must spend their lives in jail. These laws must be rolled out as soon as possible," he said. Ramaphosa further said that women must never stop and never give up. "We have made a commitment to make public procurement to be available to all women and support their small businesses. We are going to push for government to support women in economic empowerment in the green energy industry. We need to see more women participating in public employment initiatives. We are looking to close the gender gap in the working environment," he said. Ramaphosa further congratulated the South African women’s football team Banyana Banyana for reaching the last 16 in the ongoing World Cup that is held in Australia and New Zealand.

1956 WOMEN’S MARCH 

This year’s Women’s Day celebration marked 67 years since more than 20 000 women of all races marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against the apartheid pass laws. The law had been introduced by the then government. The women demanded that the law be abolished. The first National Women’s Day was celebrated on 9 August 1995.