The 16 Days of Activism for no Violence Against Women and Children launch by President Jacob Zuma ended on a high note with song and dance in what could have easily been mistaken for a political rally.
The 16 Days campaign event was held at Naauwpoort village near Itsoseng in the North West earlier today.
Most probably taken by the excitement of seeing Zuma the crowd, which included those clad in the ANC Women’s League regalia, pushed forward as they danced and sang along passionately to Solly Moholo’s song: “Ha ke gopolola Zuma, ke tlhakatlhakana tlhogo [when I think of Zuma I lose my mind].”
The president himself joined in the dance alongside Premier Supra Mahumapelo – who took the dance to another level, soaring into the air with knees bended in a dance normally associated with members of the Zion Christian Church.
In what sounded like affirmation of support, Mahumapelo had, while welcoming Zuma, expressed the province’s appreciation of his presence and encouraged him to stay strong.
“There will be people who will go around blocking your way,” he said to Zuma.
This came just a day after eNCA aired an interview with former ANC treasurer-general Matthew Phosa in which he accused the government of being behind in terms of service delivery and having made some promises they could not deliver. Phosa said there was “no money to meet those expectations”.
He said the “ANC is bordering on lying to the masses” and “I don’t regret electing Zuma but hindsight is a better teacher; you look at it and say is this what we bargained for?”
Probably waiting for a relevant platform to respond to Phosa, Zuma didn’t even mention them in his speech.
He urged communities to be part of this year’s campaign, themed “count me in”, and help the government eradicate violence against women and children as well as those with disabilities.
“This violence against women and children cannot be isolated from or removed from the general problem of violence in our country,” Zuma said.
At the same breath Zuma expressed concern about the culture of violence.
“Some people in our country tend to use violence to achieve their goals. Even when protesting, which is a democratic right, some of our people will resort to violence and violate the rights of others. We need to confront this problem and begin to eradicate the culture of violence,” he said.
Zuma said his government had recorded some great successes in its bid to deal with sex offenders.
“Since 2012, the entries of sex offenders in the national register for sex offenders had a dramatic increase from 3 526 to 17 500 last year. As at October 30, this figure had increased to 21 495 registered sex offenders,” he said.
“The government has established a 24-hour gender-based violence command centre that is run by the department of social development. The toll-free call centre provides support and counselling to victims of gender-based violence and is managed by qualified social workers.