JOHANNESBURG - The rape of a 7-year-old girl reportedly at a school in the Eastern Cape has sparked nationwide protests calling for justice and end to child abuse and gender-based violence.
Joining the fight against gender-based violence (GBV) is UNISA students who have delivered a memorandum of demands to management.
They are calling for stronger action in the fight against gender-based violence.
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The UNISA management, led by Professor Solomon Magano, the Vice-Principal for Institutional Development, has expressed its support and committed to addressing the issues raised in the memorandum.
"When you look at the atrocities committed towards women one wonders if all components and sectors have realized the deviance of the democratic of South Africa and the freedom we desire and aspire for," he says.
Mangano said he is encouraged by the student's affirmative stance against this violence while lending a hand of support to the lament for justice.
"The case of Cwecwe is used as a lens that permits us to see deeply what is happening in that part of the Eastern Cape," Mangano said.
Between 2018 and 2024, statistics obtained through a DA parliamentary question in 2024 revealed that over 106,000 child rape cases were reported.
In the Eastern Cape alone, rape accounted for a staggering 45.9% of all reported crimes against children, while nationwide the figure stood at 38.3%, a figure that's still alarming.
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Karl Muller from Nelson Mandela's Children's Fund says to remedy this crisis, the government should be held accountable for failing to protect children.
This means the names of teachers who violate children should be in the sex offender registry, must be removed from their teaching positions and face the might of the law.
Additionally, Muller says society must play an active role in protecting children within their community.
Meanwhile in KwaZulu-Natal, efforts are being made to root out this violence.
On Sunday KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli was among mourners at the funeral of Nokuphila Mbhele.
The 29-year-old was shot multiple times, allegedly by her boyfriend, in Umzumbe last Sunday.
READ: GBV runs rampant in KZN as three women killed in one weekend
The incident followed closely on the heels of a devastating double murder in Lindelani, where a man shot and killed his girlfriend and her sister.
The province is in the grips of a gender-based violence crisis.
Ntuli said they are aware that they need to increase their effort to curb this crisis this involving collaboration between government, community, traditional leaders and religious leaders.