Members of St Mary Magdalene Guild-Diocese of False Bay together with the Anglican church, Ward 33 and Philippi Community Policing Forum (CPF) celebrated the Women’s month in style on Saturday 13 August as they marched against gender-based violence (GBV).
The march started at the corner of Jakes Gerwel and Oliver Tambo roads to Samora Machel Police Station where they handed over their memorandum of grievances.
St Mary Magdalene Guild is a group of women from 11 different parishes in the Diocese of False Bay.
The president of the Diocese of False Bay, Vathiswa Njaba said every year during the women’s month they march against GBV.
She described the march as part of an awareness campaign against GBV.
She said their aim is to be visible in the communities and put pressure on the law enforcement to speed up the investigation of all the GBV related cases.
“Each year we have a GBV march awareness campaign. But we are rotating, as we are in Philippi this year. Maybe next year we’ll go to Fish Hoek and the following year will go to Robertson.
“Our message is clear that GBV is there and is happening. And it affects both genders. We also encourage people to report any case that is GBV related,” said Njaba.
She stated that people are afraid of reporting their cases to the police station because of the stigma.
“Some GBV victims don’t report their cases because they are scared that the community will laugh at them. Or sometimes people don’t report because they will lose the benefit from a partner or spouse. As women are saying enough is enough,” she said.
Njaba said in most cases the GBV is triggered by drinking excessive alcohol, drugs, insecurity, and also stress.
Njaba recommended that officers must prioritise cases of GBV. She also urged the community to work together with the police. “We need police visibility in our communities,”she said.
Samora Machel police commander Brig Elliot Lingani confirmed that they received the memorandum but they forwarded to the provincial commissioner’s office.
“Because they were coming from different communities and their memorandum was not specific only to our station. So, I felt it is imperative to forward it to the provincial commissioner’s office to deal with. Because what they were mentioning in the memorandum is affecting every police station,” said Lingani.