MEMBERS for Songe Social Change Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) in Mthatha hosted an awareness campaign at Zibungu locality in Libode, with the aim of educating people including youth, about gender-based violence (GBV), rape and femicide.
According to the centre manager for Songe Social Change, Maxwell Fono, Zibungu is one of the areas which has the highest number of rape cases; some are reported and some not.
He said what caused them to stand up is the incident on January 1, 2023, when Anenceba Nkawana (15) was brutally raped and killed.
“We are here to educate, including parents, and to show them that it is bad to abuse other people.
“Songe is servicing Libode, Ngqeleni and Port St Johns, so we do have places called Safe Space where youth go when they need counselling or ongoing support from our social workers. We will continue doing these campaigns in the whole area of Nyandeni,” said Fono.
One of the community members, Zolile Dlala, said that this campaign is very helpful to them. He said that this shows that they must be united and tell the truth, when there is a need to do so.
“We are now encouraged to be united and fight this behaviour in our area. Some of our children are breaking the law and some are using drugs, that is why, as the men, we are supposed to stand up and fight this,” said Dlala.
Chieftain for Zibungu area, Zanokuhle Ndamase, said that this programme would bring a change in her community.
She said that the youth will now know where to report when they have problems.
“We even started a programme of Inkciyo (virginity testing) with the aim of protecting our children. We teach them to speak when they are abused and not to keep quiet.
“It is not nice to be associated with wrongdoings. Our area is known as one of the areas that have a high rate of committing crime and we do not like that,” said Ndamase.
She added that they want more advice on what they should do so that their children can stay away from doing wrong things and focus on their studies.
