“When will we ever be able to celebrate the freedom of women and children in this country?”
|||Cape Town - Minutes after visiting a Gugulethu property where Namhla Nomqa, 22, was found raped and murdered, provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Arno Lamoer launched the Western Cape’s 16 Days of Activism.
He asked: “When will we ever be able to celebrate the freedom of women and children in this country?”
He was addressing a gathering of police, NGOs, government members and journalists at Weltevreden community hall in Samora Machel.
The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign is an international campaign run annually from November 25 (International Day of No Violence against Women) to December 10 (International Human Rights Day). The period includes Universal Children’s Day and World Aids Day.
In the next two weeks, the police will open a number of “victim-friendly rooms” and “domestic violence offices”.
This year’s 16 Days was preceded by the rape and murder of Nomqa in Gugulethu, as well as an eight-year-old in Uniondale at the weekend.
On Monday, a 31-year-old man appeared in the Uniondale Magistrate’s Court, charged with kidnapping, raping and murdering Shafeeka Baartman.
“At the time of being arrested, the accused was out on bail. He was facing a charge of rape,” said Eric Ntabazalila, National Prosecuting Authority spokesman.
On Saturday Nomqa was found dead in the garden of a house near her home.
She was half naked, her hands were tied and her head had been smashed in.
daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za
Cape Argus