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Two hours after the launch of the 16 days of activism against women abuse was scheduled to start at Nelson Mandela University on Saturday, President Jacob Zuma ditched the event.
Senior government officials, including Eastern Cape Premier Phumulo Masualle and his Social Development MEC Nancy Sihlwayi, left the empty building and gathered in a holding room at the VIP area.
The building, which has a 3000 seating capacity, had just 300 people. The allocated flow-over tent outside remained empty.
A statement issued by the office of the presidency said Minister for Women Susan Shabangu would be replacing the president in the national event.
There were no reasons stated for his no-show.
The event eventually continued three hours later, when people were bussed in. They brought the total number of attendees to a maximum of about 600.
The event was supported by two Cabinet ministers, MECs and Masualle, who form part of the “NDZ17 for president” slate. NDZ17 T-shirts were distributed at the venue.
Nomawonga Sithebe said she was disappointed by the presidential no-show.
“We left everything and allowed ourselves to be brought here by bus, for a president who has disappointed us,” said the 67-year-old woman.
She said there was no explanation given to them when they arrived. They just saw that Zuma was not present.
In real South African terms, women are disappointed by men they look up to every day. Women like a 25-year-old disabled woman from Timothy Valley, who was raped by a man known to her family, personify the crisis.
Cathy (not her real name) lives with her mother, her younger sister and her uncle.
Last year in June she was at home attending her younger sister’s 19th birthday party.
During the celebrations, Nathan Fourie, who lives a few streets away from her home and knows her uncle, snatched her. He took her to a deserted house that was under construction, and raped her.
In evidence presented in the Port Elizabeth High Court last week, he denied raping her.
According to a psychologist who assessed Cathy, she had the intellectual capacity of a child aged between three and six years old.
Fourie knew that she was mentally challenged.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape.
In Missionvale, not far from the launch, old women who live alone and with young children, are being targeted and raped. Thugs who live in the area have reportedly been kicking down doors in the middle of the night, robbing and raping these vulnerable women, and sometimes their young children too.
Two Nelson Mandela University students were recently raped in a computer laboratory, while doing their assignments.
The man who raped them broke into the lab with a pair of scissors and made them carry a computer he had stolen. During the rape ordeal, he also took a cellphone and stabbed one of the women for not having her phone with her.
In NU 29 Motherwell, a 14-year-old girl was raped and killed, and her body was burnt by her rapist. Her murderer allegedly snatched her while she was on her way home on a Saturday, September 30th. The next day Wendy Bheyi’s body was found in a deserted incomplete municipal flat project. Her lower body had been set alight; her head was bruised.
She was killed by a boy she went to school with. He had allegedly been pursuing her for a year.
The residents in NU29 say attacks on young girls are prevalent.
Last year in October, two female students from Nelson Mandela University, who had taken a taxi to go to a safe place in Central, ended up being raped by the taxi driver.
They were trying to avoid being caught up in an overnight Fees Must Fall protest, after they heard a rumour that the university residences would be raided by the police overnight.
Instead of taking them to their destination, he held them hostage at gunpoint, taking turns in raping them overnight. They were released at 6am the next day.
In September, two girls aged five and six years old were abducted by a 49-year-old man in Chris Hani informal settlement in New Brighton.
The girls were reported missing by their parents on a Wednesday evening after they failed to return home. They had last been seen playing in the vicinity of an open field.
Following an extensive police search, the first girl was found severely assaulted with stab wounds in her head.
The girl reportedly managed to give information that led to the discovery of the second girl in the shack of the 49-year-old man.
Medical examinations confirmed that he had raped both girls.
In her address, Shabangu said young women faced multi-dimensional challenges.
“Young women are still victims of forced marriages,” said Shabangu.
She said it was shocking that in 2017 South Africa was experiencing escalating cases of human trafficking and cannibalism.
“We never thought that we would experience incidents of cannibalism against women in our lifetime,” said Shabangu.
But slowly, sometimes, the wheels of justice turn, and judges hand down hefty sentences to rapists and murderers of women.
On Friday, Christopher Panayiotou, Sinethemba Nenembe and Zolani Sibeko were sentenced in the Port Elizabeth High Court for the murder of Jade Panayiotou. She was kidnapped and killed execution-style on the instruction of her husband.
They were sentenced to life imprisonment for Panayiotou, life and 13 years for Nenembe and 15 years for Sibeko.
