Day: August 1, 2022

A South African court on Monday began proceedings against more than 80 people arrested after the brazen gang rape of eight women. The women were filming a music video last week when they were attacked by masked, armed men.

Women’s rights activists protested outside the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court against the high rates of gender violence in South Africa as dozens of men detained in sweeping arrests in the aftermath of the incident were set to appear in court.

No one has yet been charged with rape and police investigations into the incident are continuing.

Eight women were raped and robbed while shooting a video in the mining area of Krugersdorp outside Johannesburg last Thursday, Police Ministry spokeswoman Lirandzu Themba told VOA.

They were approached by men wearing balaclavas and firing guns in the air and raped multiple times.

“On Sunday the police minister Bheki Cele met six of the eight survivors of the gang rape that has shocked the country,” said Themba.

The youngest of the women was just 19, Cele said after the meeting. “Let me tell you, they’re quite traumatized. They’re not in a good shape, mentally or otherwise.”

Local media reported that many of those arrested were believed to be illegal miners, known here as zama-zamas, and that some had also been arrested for being illegal immigrants from neighboring countries. Two suspects were killed during the shootout with police last Thursday.

The more than 80 men have now been charged with contravention of the immigration act and possession of stolen goods, police said.

It was unclear how many, if any, of them were connected directly to the gang rapes, Cele said, adding that forensic testing was pending. “Many people have been arrested but we need the real perpetrators among those people,” said Cele.

Women’s Month

South Africa is celebrating Women’s Month through August.

Shenilla Mohamed, executive director of Amnesty International South Africa, said the rights group was “outraged” by the gang rapes.

“It is unacceptable that woman and children in South Africa are still unsafe due to the high levels of domestic and sexual violence. Authorities must do much more to ensure that South Africa becomes a safer place for women and children and that they do not live in fear,” said Mohamed.

Despite having a very high rate of rape and gender-based violence, the brutal attack has shocked South Africa, which begins celebrating Women's Month from Monday.

More than 36,000 cases of rape were recorded in the country in the financial year 2020 – 2021.

Source: Voice of America

Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, says government is focused on improving the performance of Eskom’s power stations and “adding as much new generation capacity to the grid as possible, as quickly as possible” in order to ensure energy security.

He was speaking during a media briefing by several ministers whose departments fall under the National Energy Crisis Committee (NECOM).

The NECOM – which comprises of Eskom and relevant government departments – was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa during an address to the nation last Monday on interventions to address the electricity crunch the country has been experiencing.

NECOM will report to an inter-ministerial committee chaired by the President and comprises of Minister Gungubele, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe; Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan; Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana; Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment ,Barbara Creecy; as well as the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel.

Gungubele told the briefing that government is proactively addressing energy concerns.

“Government is taking bold steps both to address the immediate crisis and to make load shedding a thing of the past. Further, we are mobilising all of the resources at our disposal and will do whatever it takes to achieve energy security.

“I must emphasise that achieving energy security is our single most important objective as a country, to enable economic growth and job creation. Our short-term objective is to reduce the severity and frequency of load shedding through immediate measures to stabilise the energy system. Our long-term objective is to end load shedding altogether,” Gungubele said at Monday’s briefing.

The minister highlighted that government has already taken steps in addressing energy shortages including:

• Changes have been made to the Regulations on New Generation Capacity to allow Municipalities to procure power independently. As a result, several municipalities are in the process of procuring additional power.

• A revival of the renewable energy procurement programme which enabled 2205 MW from Bid Window 4 to proceed to construction, the majority of which has now been connected to the grid.

• A further 6800 MW of solar PV and wind power is being procured in terms of the current Ministerial determination. This additional generation capacity will connect to the grid from late 2023. Another 3000 MW of gas and 513 of battery storage will be procured through the next bid windows.

• In 2021, the licensing threshold for power generations increased from 1MW to 100MW which has resulted in a pipeline of more than 80 confirmed private sector projects under development with a combined capacity of over 6000 MW, several of which will commence construction this year.

• Eskom has established an independent transmission company and is on track to separate its generation and distribution businesses by the end of 2022.

“These are just a few examples of the interventions government has already put in place. However, we recognise that we need to be responsive to the situation as it develops. The severe load shedding which we experienced last month showed that additional actions are necessary to restore system stability and increase generation capacity,” Gungubele said.

These actions will be guided by the five interventions outlined by President Ramaphosa, which are to:

• Fix Eskom and improve the availability of existing supply

• Enable and accelerate private investment in generation capacity

• Accelerate procurement of new capacity from renewables, gas and battery storage

• Unleash businesses and households to invest in rooftop solar

• Fundamentally transform the electricity sector to achieve long-term energy security.

“The NECOM has already begun to meet regularly to ensure that these actions are implemented swiftly. Eight work streams have been established to ensure coordination across government, and discussions are underway with the private sector and other social partners to ensure that the best available expertise in the country is brought into this effort.

“As the President said in his address to the nation: “The crisis that we are facing requires that we should take bold, courageous and decisive action to close the electricity gap. That is our overriding objective as government,” Gungubele said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Frank conversations need to be had on the socio-economic empowerment and advancement of women, young women, and women with disabilities in South Africa, says Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.

“At the heart of our mandate as the department is to ensure that women, youth and persons with disabilities play an effective role in representation, ownership and control of income generating assets within the economy.

“We must view their participation as critical to ensuring the objectives of the Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Plan are met.”

The Minister said this as she officially launched Women’s Month 2022 in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday, under the theme: Women’s Socio-Economic Rights and Empowerment: Building Back Better for Women’s Resilience.

The National Women’s Month programme is based on the ongoing interventions across the work of government, civil society and the private sector within the context of the national priorities outlined by government.

During her address to guests at a Women in Waste Management workshop, the Minister said the strategic focus of this year’s theme is to advance women’s socio-economic empowerment agenda towards the achievement of gender equality by 2030.

She said the recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape paint a devastating picture on the effects of choosing to ignore climate change.

“Now, more than ever, the green economy provides the necessary sustainable frameworks in which we can rebuild our economy in an inclusive manner. We must explore the economic, social and environmental potential of the green economy in driving gender equality.”

The Minister said 28 years into democracy women still remain on the periphery of the country’s developmental agenda.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened existing inequalities leaving millions of women at the receiving end of high levels of poverty, increasing food and fuel prices, climate change, unemployment and high rates of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF).

“We find ourselves in a moment of crisis where we need to act collectively to defend the democratic gains that the women of 1956 have worked so hard to achieve.”

Last week, young women in Krugersdorp were violated and raped while shooting a music video. “Unemployment is high in South Africa and to hear that these young women were approached by a group of men who raped and robbed them of their belongings is despicable.

“We are thankful of the interventions by SAPS on the apprehension of suspects and we hope that there will be convictions soon. We are also thankful as the young women are receiving psychosocial support for them and their families to overcome this ordeal,” said the Minister.

Source: South African Government News Agency