‘No free lawyers for perpetrators of violent crimes’

Acting Free State Premier Mathabo Leeto on Monday led hundreds of women at the Frikkie Meyer Hall in Welkom to call for stiffer sentences for people convicted of violent crimes.

The women gathered for a prayer session seeking divine intervention against the increasing atrocities directed at women and children across the country in recent weeks.

They also called on government to deny free legal representation for people accused of abusing women and other violent crimes.

Leeto who is the provincial MEC for sport, arts and culture, challenged women to be on the forefront of robust discussions ahead of the ANC policy conference and make inputs that could result in tougher jail terms for rapists and murderers.

She said m such offenders should also be denied certain privileges enjoyed by law abiding South Africans, adding it is unfortunate in the past it was largely believed that only illiterate and unemployed women were vulnerable to rape.

“But as we can see now the scourge has moved to include well-off women with careers and marriages, in society and the workplace.”

Leeto said the growing rate of gender based violence directed at women in South Africa is happening even when government has formulated the Domestic Violence Act and established a children’s court to militate against abuse of the weak and vulnerable.

“The ANC policy conference is taking place in June and the organisation has invited inputs from all stakeholders. This is because when we attained freedom back then we believed it applied that women can now go wherever they want anytime they want but this has not always been the case.

“Now we are saying enough is enough. We have been talking and holding campaigns to no avail, now we have to tell the policy conference that we are not happy to see perpetrators of violent crimes getting free legal representation. All that representation is not free at all as it is paid for by the taxpayer,” the MEC noted.

She warned that people should not wait for attacks to be happening to their own children before they act, while calling on men to protect women.

Also present at the event was the national deputy president of the ANC women’s league, Sisi Ntombela, who is also the provincial MEC of Co-operative governance and human settlements.

Addressing the gathering, Ntombela called on fathers to be present in the lives of their sons and apportioned blame for unhappy upbringing of the boy child on women who deny men access to their children.

“I visited a junior facility for boys and when talking to them it appeared to me that most of them were raised by single mothers without their fathers, and it is this absence in their lives that had driven them to come into conflict with the law. So fathers, please we beg you, your sons need your guidance in life to be able to respect their sisters, girlfriends, mothers and wives,” she said.

A candle light ceremony was conducted as a symbol of lighting up the lives of victims of dark tales of rape and abuse.