The Soul City Institute for Social Justice (SCI), like the rest of South Africa, is shocked and appalled by the murder of Tshegofatso Pule. 

SCI extends its sincerest condolences to the Pule family and to the community that loved, nurtured and held Tshegofatso Pule as their own.

As an intersectional feminist institute working with womxn, girls, and the communities they live in, the Soul City Institute is acutely aware that violence against womxn and girls is endemic, widespread, and normalised. 

South Africa’s femicide rate is five times the global average, and three womxn die at the hands of their intimate partner every day in South Africa. 

That this reality has become part of an accepted ‘norm’ should appal us all. 
 
There is nothing ‘normal’ about a society in which women are routinely raped and sexually violated, where women’s bodies are routinely mutilated, disfigured, dismembered, burnt - as if to underscore the total disregard for the fundamental humanity of the person. 
 
It is an egregious affront to the founding values of our constitutional democracy – Equality, Dignity, Freedom - that we have arrived at a place where it has become ‘normal’ for a pregnant 28-year-old woman to be butchered, mutilated and strung up in a tree. 

In a month dedicated to honouring the memories of black youth whose promise was cut short in 1976, it is an assault on those whom we seek to honour, to see a young woman and her unborn child cut down with so little regard for the hard-won rights of our struggle for liberation.
 
Within just nine days of the national lockdown which began at midnight on the 26 March 2020 - over 2 300 complaints of gender-based violence were registered by the South African Police Service.  Of these, only 148 suspects were arrested, underscoring the staggering lack of political will in the criminal justice system to addressing the ongoing scourge of femicide and GBV. 
 
The swift and coordinated responses of several government Departments (Health, Social Development, Justice, etc.) to the COVID19 pandemic indicate a clear and demonstrable capacity to address pressing health and social crises in a coordinated manner that eliminates the silos that bedevil the day to day provision of essential services in South Africa.   
 
South Africa has witnessed what political will looks like.
 
South Africa has seen what government departments can and will do in times of national crisis.  
 
The murder and mutilation of women and girls is a national crisis. 
 
The Soul City Institute calls on President Cyril Ramaphosa, Minister Ronald Lamola, Minister Bheki Cele, and Minister Zweli Mkhize to show the same decisive and unified stance taken against the COVID19 pandemic, and to bring the same political will and Ministerial unity to bear in pursuit of justice for Tshegofatso Pule.
 
And in pursuit of justice for every woman and child awaiting justice from a system where justice is rarely found.  
 
The swift and coordinated responses of these Departments during the COVID19 lockdown have illustrated that where there is political will and widespread public awareness, the criminal justice system is capable of both speed and efficiency in pursuit of justice. 
 
Soul City Institute calls on President Ramaphosa and Ministers Lamola, Cele, Mkhize to show womxn and girls what political will exercised in pursuit of women’s rights to equality, dignity and freedom, looks like.    
 
The SCI demands justice for Tshegofatso Pule, for her unborn child, and for all womxn and girls awaiting justice. 

 

Issued by the Soul City Institute for Social Justice