JOHANNESBURG – Former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela says the moral outrage being felt by the country over the assault case involving Deputy Higher Education Minister Mduduzi Manana has been heightened because it’s Women’s Month.
She says while the situation is sad, it’s also a wakeup call that better interventions are needed to combat a kind of crime that “happens all the time”.
Madonsela was speaking on the sidelines of a Women’s Day dialogue held by her foundation at Constitution Hill on Wednesday.
Madonsela says there’s a certain level of tolerance for violence in South Africa, an example being how so-called black Twitter reacts to a racial assault.
“I look at how we react, for example, the so-called black Twitter. If a white person beats up a black person we don’t sleep.”
The former Public Protector says this illustrates that the country requires intervention that goes beyond the justice process.
She says physical violence, including femicide, is simply a product of other forms of ongoing violence.
“It’s sad what’s happened and justice must take its cause. But for me, it’s a wakeup call that we need to intervene beyond the justice process.”
Madonsela says usually violent people have profound difficulties and are waging internal struggles.
(Edited by Zamangwane Shange)
The article was originally published here
