Human Rights Day gave women nothing to celebrate, according to the Grahamstown-based Ubuntu Women and Community Forum.
Human Rights Day gave women nothing to celebrate, according to the Grahamstown-based Ubuntu Women and Community Forum.
In a statement made in the wake of Human Rights Day earlier this month, on the anniversary of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, the organisation's chairperson Claudia Martinez Mullen and secretary Nosigqibo Soxujwa said that in this town, people's right to life was compromised.
“In Grahamstown we have a blatant abuse of human rights, from rape to murder, poverty and hunger. Everyday life in Rhini is a terrible challenge to its people,” said Martinez Mullen. “The poor are becoming poorer, their everyday rights are less, we would like to call upon the entire community of Grahamstown to become just that, a community, not divided by east and west but united.”
The forum was founded two years ago and has worked with social justice groups such as the Student HIV/Aids Resistance Campaign (SHARC), Galela Amanzi and Amnesty International. One of their projects is a weekly soup kitchen in the Ethembeni rural settlement.
“Three weeks ago, one of our members went to court in the hope that the case of rape she opened in December 2010 would finally be put to rest. It was delayed yet again and her rapist walks freely on bail. It is cases like this that have pushed us to act,” explained Martinez Mullen.
The forum is preparing for what they say will be a dramatic campaign against rape and HIV/Aids, to be launched in May. They say they hope that with it, the voice of the people will be heard again.
“There is no freedom in Grahamstown. Human Rights day gave us nothing to celebrate,” said Martinez Mullen. “As the UWCF we hope to create networks and keep the people of Grahamstown in contact with one another, stepping out of isolation.”
