IN THE WAKE OF COVID 19 women no longer safe “Domestic Violence that led to the Grave”, the post read. A woman goes on to tell the story of her mother. On the left, she says, that‘s my mother. On the right of the picture, the last frame, that‘s my mother too. But in deep down on the grave! Killed by the man she married, her lover, her friend, turned a murderer! Evidence that led to her murder laid bare for the world to see. The depression, the hurt, the hopelessness, foretold in her despair post. The government having failed her, she seeks solace with the online community. And believe it or not, that‘s the real sadness we are going through. Women no longer safe in this pandemic. Covid 19 coming as a curse to the very women that have helped build a nation. The inhumanity cases are happening all over Africa, and South Africa has been worstly hit. Over the weekend, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke out against genderbased violence, ―We note with disgust that at a time when the country is facing the gravest of threats from the (coronavirus) pandemic, violent men are taking advantage of the
By Wangari Gatonye
eased restrictions on movement to attack women and children,‖ he said in a statement. The death of a young, pregnant 28 year old woman sparked a a nation wide protest after she was found stabbed and hanging on a tree. Tshegofatso Pule, who was eight months pregnant, was last seen June 4 getting into a cab from her home in Soweto, saying she was going to visit her boyfriend, the South African outlet Sowetan Live reported. She called her family later that night, claiming she got in a fight with her boyfriend and planned to return home, the outlet reported. Pule never returned and a local resident later stumbled across her body, with stab wounds in her chest, hanging from a tree near Florida Lake, according to reports. Pule‘s grisly death sparked the hashtag #JusticeForTshego, which was trending last week on Twitter, and made international headlines. Last year, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa dubbed the country one of ―the most unsafe places in the world to be a woman.‖Also in 2019, crime statistics showed that 2,930 adult women in South Africa had been murdered during a 12-month span from 2017 to 2018 — about one murder per three hours.
Mellenin Magazine
