Springbok captain Siya Kolisi addressed the murder of nine women in Ekurhuleni and appealed to men in South Africa to get involved, via a video posted on Instagram on Friday, 18 September.
Kolisi is urging the men of the country, other sporting teams and any one with a platform to speak out about Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in South Africa.
This follows the deaths of nine women in the Ekurhuleni area in the last two months.
Condolences
He started the video by passing on his condolences to the families of those who have lost loves ones, the ones the public knows about and those that have not made headlines.
“Hello everyone, I’d like to start of by saying condolences to all the families that have lost loved ones this week… not only the ones that are on the headlines, obviously. I know there are many others who’s names didn’t make the news,” he said.
“I’m always the one coming to ask South Africans to unite behind us when we are playing. And now I’m asking again for all South Africans to unite against GBV,” he continued.
Siya went on to appeal to the men of the country to join the fight against GBV.
“It is our responsibility to make sure we use our voices and platforms…and I want to encourage all the other sporting teams in the country to speak up about what’s happening in our country. Because, we ask people to get behind us and they do, it’s time for us to also use our platform to make sure we are better. And also, to the men of our country, we need to acknowledge and accept that we are the problem here,” he said.
“If we don’t do anything about it as men, how am I going to answer to my daughter? to my sister? And also, I’m failing my son by not educating myself in making sure that I’m better and he’s not not also going through the same problems as what I am going through. We just have to do better as men. We can’t just sit back and act like nothing is happening,” he continued.
Take a look at the full video.
This comes after Siya’s rumoured girlfriend, Rachel John also spoke out about GBV in South Africa.
THE NINE BODIES FOUND
A total of nine dead bodies have been found in Ekurhuleni over the past two months.
The latest victim was found half-naked and wrapped in a sheet on the side of the road on Thursday morning, 17 September, in Dawn Park, Ekurhuleni.
Investigators are working on finding her identity as well as the circumstances surrounding her death.
The first case was a 37-year-old woman found half-naked and dead in an open veld near the R21 highway, with a suspect arrested two days later and remaining in custody since.
The first victim to be formally identified was 38-year-old Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo, a runner from Rhodesfield, Kempton Park.
A second victim has been identified as 32-year-old Itumeleng Kekana.
A third victim has also been identified as 38-year-old Dineo Evelyn Motapane.
The fourth victim to be identified is 28-year-old Gracious Nkomo.