I am 14 years old and attend a school in Cape Town. I don’t have any social media accounts, so I am writing to you because I want to be heard.
In the past few weeks, there have been numerous kidnappings, murders and violent acts against women that have been discussed around the country, and people are outraged saying “the women in South Africa are in trouble”.
The thing that strikes me the most is not Uyinene Mrwetyana’s death - it is the fact that it takes a woman from a privileged background to get killed and raped for the country to act.
Women from disadvantaged communities are raped and murdered every single day in South Africa and nothing happens, no one says anything, but as soon as it affects the wealthier population of South Africa “the women in South Africa are in trouble”.
Women in South Africa have been in trouble for a very long time!
The reality is that wealth and privilege is no longer a protection from violence and it saddens me that this is the reality - that women are getting treated violently every day.
So don’t pack your bags for the UK! Stay here and fight for the women of this country!
Things need to change and things will change, people need to act and really act, not just change their profile picture on Instagram or post something on Twitter.
They need to do something about this very real problem.
This problem can’t just pass in a couple of weeks when the next big problem pops up on social media, it is a current problem that needs to stay on people’s minds and it needs to be addressed.
Women are in trouble and have been for a while now and the only people that can fix it are the people of today.