Community march against killings and abuse of women

The killing and abuse of women and children in Vhembe came in the spotlight last Friday, when hundreds of community members marched in the town of Thohoyandou.

They were led by gender activist, Rinae Sengani, better known as Riri. The group marched from the centre of the town and handed over a memorandum to a representative of the Vhembe executive mayor.

In April this year, Sengani (30) lost a friend, Portia Rasilavhi (35) of Dzanani who was brutally murdered. Her body was found at a suspect’s home at Ha-Rabali. The man is still on the run.

In the months to follow, more women were killed and abused in the Vhembe district and this spurred the young activist from Gogogo to start a campaign known as Spare a Life.

On Friday, she led a march of several hundreds, among them victims of crime, abuse, families of those that lost their lives due to the killings, clerics, traditional healers, activists against gender inequality, local musicians, the SAPS, local municipality, media houses and many community members.

Sengani, the founder of the Rinae Sengani Foundation, said they were in unity to show their disappointment about the ever-increasing number of women and children being killed and abused in the area. “We are here to make a point that we are totally against what is happening in our area and the country. We are here not because we do not have any other place to go, we are here to heed a call of the echoing drum irritating our ears about the abuse of children and women under our watch.”

She further indicated that the march was meant to inspire hope and to say to a girl-child in a corner not to suffer any more in silence.

She said one contributing factor to the killings and abuse is the dependency of women on their spouses for their daily survival.

She added that the call goes beyond abuse and that women should be empowered through education and sustainable jobs. “It will be very unfortunate if we will all fold our arms and only choose to act when one of our own is a victim or only when it happened closer to home.”

Date:06 July 2017

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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