Ntshavheni plants nine trees in Kwa-Thema for the nine women killed in Ekurhuleni
The Minister in The Presidency led the Love Your Street clean-up campaign in the municipality where the bodies of nine women were found, linking streetlighting, illegal dumping and safety from environmental design to the gender-based violence and femicide emergency response.
Minister in The Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni led a delegation of government officials, civil society organisations and community members through the Love Your Street service delivery programme in Kwa-Thema, in the Ekurhuleni Municipality, where nine trees were planted in honour of the nine women whose bodies were recently discovered.
Ntshavheni placed the campaign inside three existing programmes: the clean cities and clean towns programme launched by Deputy President Paul Mashatile, the comprehensive emergency response to recent incidents of gender-based violence and femicide in Ekurhuleni, and the National Strategic Plan against gender-based violence and femicide.
She tied the clean-up directly to the circumstances of the killings. “It includes dealing with safety from environmental design,” she said. “Some of the women who were kidnapped, were kidnapped whilst jogging. This could be because the streets are dark. Some of them were dumped in illegal dumps. If we therefore eradicate illegal dumping sites, there won’t be places [like that]. [We must] clean the streets and open spaces, making sure that they are debushed.”
On the question of lighting, the Minister said engagements had been held with the municipality’s leadership to ensure that streetlights are operational.
The nine trees carry the memory of the nine women. “We’re going to put names around them so that we continuously remember and recommit that it will never [happen] again,” Ntshavheni said. “We need to be a caring society.” She commended those who have vowed not to turn a blind eye to gender-based violence.
The Minister also planted a tree as part of the Milestones of Freedom campaign, which marks 70 years since the 1956 Women’s March, 60 years since the District 6 forced removals, 50 years since the 1976 Youth Uprising and 30 years of the Constitution.
A question the record leaves open is whether the streetlighting engagements with Ekurhuleni’s leadership have produced a funded, dated plan for repairs, and how the illegal dumping sites identified in the campaign will be cleared and kept clear once the delegation moves on. The municipality and the Presidency have not, in this account, put timelines to either.
Source: SAnews (South African Government News Agency), Ntshavheni leads Love Your Street campaign in Ekurhuleni, https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/ntshavheni-leads-love-your-street-campaign-ekurhuleni
