By Palesa Matlala
- A community protest against child rape turned political when ANC and MKP supporters clashed outside a Soweto police station.
- Organisers say political parties used the march for election campaigning.
What started as a peaceful march for justice in Soweto turned into a shouting match between political rivals.
The #JusticeForCwecwe protest was meant to stand against the rape of a seven-year-old girl at a school in the Eastern Cape.
But things changed when members of the ANC and the MK Party’s women’s leagues marched separately to the Moroka police station in Soweto.
Instead of showing unity, they clashed in the parking lot — accusing each other of hijacking the event for political gain.
“This is absurd,” said Mathapelo Ndaba, the organiser of the march. “Why should they politicise this at the expense of sexual abuse victims? This is not a time for political grandstanding. There is a whole community before any political party.”
She said the MK Party had copied details from the original posters and tried to take over the event.
Ndaba said the presence of gender-based violence victims required sensitivity — not political noise.
Ward councillor Papi Tshetsana also hit out at the chaos, saying the issue affects everyone and should have united the community.
“As a community, we could have done better. We should have come together to support children who were harmed by adults and left our political interests out of this,” he said.
Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero, who attended the march, said the justice system needs to move faster in dealing with gender-based violence cases.
“The only way to regain confidence is the speedy resolution of all the cases that are sitting in our police stations,” said Morero.
He added that more must be done to teach boys how to respect women and to involve men in efforts to end abuse.
Pictured above: Political parties clash outside Moroka police station during the march for #JusticeForCwecwe.
Image source: Selloane Ntshonyane
