- Deputy Minister in the Presidency Thembi Siweya said the death of 20-year-old Wits student Asithandile Zozo was heartbreaking.
- Zozo died after she was stabbed four times, allegedly by her former boyfriend.
- Siweya said the families of victims should stop telling them not to report perpetrators.
Deputy Minister in the Presidency Thembi Siweya says the death of 20-year-old Wits student Asithandile Zozo is “appalling and heartbreaking”.
Siweya, who was participating in an online panel discussion on gender-based violence (GBV) on Friday morning, said: “In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is so heartbreaking that we had to lose such a young bright student.”
Zozo died on Monday afternoon after she was stabbed four times in the upper body, allegedly by her former boyfriend, Viwe Rulumeni.
Rulumeni, 22, made his first appearance in the Dutywa Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
He was discharged from hospital after allegedly overdosing on pills in an apparent suicide attempt.
During the online discussion, Siweya said Zozo’s family and friends had invested so much in her, only for her to die at the hands of someone else.
“Our statistics are not necessarily looking good; sadly victims of gender-based violence are violated by close friends, their loved ones and those who they put their trust in. This surely has to come to an end.”
She added disadvantaged communities needed to be empowered.
“We need to continue to utilise the platform of community media to speak to our women in rural [areas] about what is it they need to do. The courage to go and report their cases, the courage to be confident and to support each other wherever they are found.”
Siweya said families of GBV victims needed to stop telling them not to report any acts of violence against them to the police.
“The error that when a woman is abused in some rural area and you find them calling a family meeting to say ‘no you can’t go to the police, this is [a] family matter’ needs to come to an end.”
She added society would not find a solution to end violence against women if “we don’t engage men”.
Deputy Communications Minister Pinky Kekana said she was a GBV survivor.
“I’m saying you can be able to overcome. As long as you have [support] systems, women and men around you.”
She added according to the UN’s broadband commission report, 73% of women were abused online worldwide.
“It also says 12% of girls aged 15 have experienced cyber bullying compared to 8% of boys.”
Kekana believed this was preventable through education and awareness campaigns.
