LISTEN: Only men able to end the scourge of rape, says Cele
Police Minister Bheki Cele says the time has come for men to play their part and put an end to the country’s shocking rape statistics.
Cele delivered the keynote address at the memorial service of two police officers who were shot dead while on duty in Boksburg last week Thursday.
The 29-year-old constable Khotso Malahlela and 45-year-old sergeant Vusimuzi Batsha were both responding to a complaint when they were attacked by three men.
The two were waiting for a mortuary van to arrive on the scene when they were disarmed and shot dead.
Cele again called on families to stop protecting rapists.
"There is a call I want to make, there are too many criminals around us and these criminals, they come from our homes.
This is a call I make to the communities, to the families, these criminals are among us, they believe that they own the world and women.
“We can’t have a situation in three months, December, January and February, 10 000 women are raped in South Africa.
What is worse, 50% of them are raped in their own houses, 50% of them are raped by people they know, 50% of them are raped by the people who are supposed to protect them.
“So, this is a call I make to men; these women are raped by men, if men can stop raping women there will be no rape.
So its no use to talk around the people, time to speak to men has arrived, men stop it, talk to men and talk to yourselves. When you are about to rape a women think of your own mother, put your mother in the face crying with a knife on the face, make that women your mother and stop it.”
Listen to Minister Bheki Cele below:
Cele said only men are able to put an end to the scourge of rape.
"Stop it, men stop it, this crime of rape must come to an end and there is only one person to stop it, it’s a man. So I do want to make a call to men, but I also want to make that call to families. You are not going to tell me that in Khayelitsha we are going to arrest 45-year-old man that has raped his own daughter of 6 years, and has raped that daughter for four years, and they all stayed in the house, you are not going to tell me that.
“So, families, please be part of this fight of the scourge of women abused by men, but men, women are not made for your pleasures, they are fully-fledged human beings. It is a situation we can fight and let's fight it together.”
Listen to Minister Bheki Cele below:
