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The Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Ms Mmapaseka Steve Letsike, MP, joins the calls strongly condemning the misogynistic conduct directed at a group of women at a Sandton establishment after they rejected the unwanted advances of a man publicly identified as Mr Lawrence Chamurwa Mudzinganyama.

The threats of lethal violence captured on video during the incident cannot be dismissed as an unfortunate exchange or a momentary loss of temper. They reflect the dangerous entitlement that lies along the continuum of gender-based violence and femicide: the belief that a woman’s autonomy is an insult to male authority and that she may be punished for exercising it. Rejection, anger, intoxication, wealth or social standing, perceived or real, can never excuse the harassment, humiliation or threatening of any woman in the Republic, as our Constitution guarantees all women an inalienable right to agency.

The Deputy Minister therefore calls on the Department of Home Affairs to urgently consider Mr Mudzinganyama’s presence and immigration status in the Republic of South Africa. If he meets the statutory grounds for classification as a prohibited or undesirable person under sections 29 or 30 of the Immigration Act, the Department must act decisively and impose the full consequences permitted by law. The Minister of Home Affairs will be petitioned by the Office of the Deputy Minister in this regard.

We also amplify the unequivocal condemnation of this conduct by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide and Substance Abuse. The proper judicial process must now determine criminal liability, and we welcome that the suspect has been processed by the South African Police Service and must present before a court on 1 October 2026.

The swift action taken by stakeholders across the public and private sectors demonstrates that the fight against gender-based violence requires consequences wherever abusive conduct occurs and cannot be left to the criminal justice system alone. Letsike welcomes Moriel Infrastructure Group’s removal of Mr Mudzinganyama as Executive Chairman and Director, Steyn City Properties’ termination of his lease, and the investigations ordered by Ministers Barbara Creecy and Dean Macpherson into the company’s SANRAL contracts and CIDB gradings.

These actions do not replace the criminal investigation, nor should anyone prejudge the outcome of the judicial process. They demonstrate, however, that threats against women carry social, institutional and economic consequences and cannot be dismissed through an apology or an appeal to wealth and influence. Perpetrators of gender based violence and femicide must have no place to hide within the borders of the Republic of South Africa.

“These interventions demonstrate what a whole-of-society response should look like. Accountability must follow a perpetrator into every space from which power, status or impunity is derived. There must be criminal accountability where an offence has been committed, professional and corporate accountability where codes of conduct have been violated, and public-sector accountability wherever state contracts or public resources are involved,” Deputy Minister Letsike said.

At a time when our country is confronting intolerable levels of violence against women, society cannot normalise the language of murder or treat threats against women as entertainment. The whole of society must reject this behaviour wherever it occurs, and stand with women who speak out. Women must be able to say no and continue with their lives without fear of retaliation.

 

Issued by Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities