The African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) on Wednesday demanded that rape offenders receive no bail and that parole for rape offenders be reviewed, as part of action against gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF).

The women’s league will, on Friday, march against GBVF and hand over a memorandum of demands to President Cyril Ramaphosa, which also calls for a minimum life sentence for rape perpetrators.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula will take part in the march.

The ANCWL called for decisive action as the country and the world observes 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children, between November 25 and December 10.

ANCWL secretary-general Nokuthula Nqaba said in its memorandum, the women’s league called for increased funding for shelters, counselling centres and legal aid to provide holistic support for victims of GBVF.

ANCWL also wants mandatory training of police and judicial officials to handle GBVF cases sensitively and effectively.

“Our call for action emanates from the texts of the progressive women’s charter of 1954, which advocated for a single society made up of both men and women with shared problems and anxieties, and therefore should join hands to remove all social evils and obstacles towards human development and evolution,” said Nqaba.

She said the league demanded a “just and safer” South Africa, where women and girls were protected, empowered and free from violence.

FOREIGN NATIONALS AND SPAZA SHOPS

The ANCWL further called on government to expeditiously deport undocumented foreign nationals.

The league wants the State to empower local vendors and to integrate them into the mainstream economic sector, while it also called for stricter gun control measures.

Nqaba pointed out that its upcoming march also aimed to defend the country’s children from food-borne illnesses, which Gauteng has been plagued with in the cases of the almost 30 fatalities of children who consumed snacks and hawker food from unregulated spaza shops and vendors.

“We are concerned about the effect this is having on female-headed households in our country, and we hope that the government will soon find solutions to this tragic occurrence,” she said.