The Minister of Community Safety, Albert Fritz, has expressed his concerns regarding the unacceptable proliferation of gender-based violence. According to a statement from the department of community safety, several members of the LGBTQI+ community have been attacked and killed across the country. In the Western Cape, 22-year old Lonwabo Jack’s body was found on Sunday, April 18, with stab wounds in a pool of blood in Mau-Mau, Nyanga East.
Minister Fritz said events like this has shaken him to the core because these are hate crimes, which makes him ask serious questions about the ills which are plaguing our society, against which we as a people seem to make little headway. “When we speak of gender-based violence, we include all of those who suffer violence and even death because of societal reactions and perceptions around gender. This, therefore, includes people like Lonwabo, who suffered this gruesome death on his birthday, ” Fritz said.
Fritz indicated that he will also write to the GBV Desk at the Court Watching Brief Unit to ask them to follow this and other GBV cases which do not receive the necessary scrutiny and public focus they deserve. “In between those publicised cases, thousands of victims suffer gender-based violence at the hands of cruel perpetrators, and most times these cases go completely unnoticed. Too many of those cases fall through the cracks. And not enough of them receive the attention they need,” Fritz added.
Meanwhile, an investigation is currently underway to determine the extent of the hate crime. This also comes in the wake of the Minister calls for more efficiency in the processing of DNA samples at the National Forensic Sciences Laboratory.
Picture: Cape Town Etc gallery