Khosi Mncedane, ID MPL in Gauteng says harsher prison sentences should be considered for all perpetrators of women and child abuse, ‘with the 16 Days of Activism Against Women and Child Abuse being an appropriate platform on which to start this debate.’

Ms Mncedane cited the example of a man in Ekurhuleni who allegedly poured acid on his ex-girlfriend Rachel Morapedi’s face after she refused to take him back.

‘This kind of cruel behaviour is indicative of government’s failure to enforce the constitutional rights of women and other vulnerable groups in our society,’ Mncedane says.

The ID MPL believes that ‘constitutional studies at schools, the education of communities on the rights of women and children and harsher sentences for perpetrators should be a fundamental part of any attempt to reverse the scourge of abuse in our society.’

ID policy on the Constitution states that ‘comprehensive constitutional studies must be introduced in the school curriculum so that children, and especially young girls, know their rights from a very early age.’

‘It is unfair that so many of our women continue to be treated in the most inhumane and humiliating ways, with so many of them accepting this as just another fact of life. We need to send a strong message to these cowards that continue to prey on soft targets,’ says Mncedane.

‘We in the Independent Democrats work daily to educate women on their constitutional rights and we call on other political parties to do the same because it is only through this kind of rights education that women will know their worth.’

For media enquiries, please call Sibongile Maputi, ID Gauteng Media Officer, on 083 284 0646