Gender-based violence and femicide feature prominently among the concerns of South Africa’s youth, as evidenced by the highlighting of this issue within a youth-generated memorandum of demands to be handed over to the presidency on 16 June. This will form part of a Youth Day parade in Pretoria, organised by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.
“I think what the youth need to realise is that we all know someone who has been affected by gender-based violence, so this isn’t only a political issue – its a personal issue,” says Candice Chirwa, a young activist with a particular interest in menstruation rights and safety, who contributed to the drafting of the Youth Day parade memorandum.
Chirwa was among several youth organisers and memorandum-drafters Daily Maverick spoke to in an effort to gauge the youth’s perspectives on the state of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) in South Africa, and how youth activists and society at large can push this fight into a brighter future.
What Chirwa highlights is that the memorandum, and its GBVF section in particular, is interesting because it is not particularly radical in the solutions it proposes. Rather, it calls for an end to GBV by highlighting policies that have…