EFF STATEMENT ON THE GANG RAPE CRISIS IN SOWETO TAXI LINES

23 March 2017                         

The EFF expresses grave concern on safety and security in taxi ranks; in particular for black women. We condemn, with risking, the gang rapes by a group of men picking up unsuspecting women pretending to be a taxi around Soweto, Johannesburg. Most recently, a mother was gang raped with her 10 year old son forced to watch the gruesome crime unfold. 

It must be put on the record that Taxi ranks remain unsafe spaces, where toxic, violent , predatory black masculinities are often allowed and given platform to express themselves with impunity. Not long ago, a black woman was subjected to an orgy of violence in Noord Taxi Rank for wearing a short skirt. 

It is a fact that many young black women endure massive abuse and sexual harassment that they have grown too tired of reporting in our taxi ranks and industry spaces. Black women endure torture and humiliation in the very spaces that are meant to protect them because police do nothing with reported crimes. 

In fact, the government of the ANC has normalized this violence against women by not treating the treacherous acts and reports of sexual violence with urgency and precision. This in turn enforces normalized sexual violence against women and in particular, Black women. The extent of insecurity even extends to police stations themselves where black women face the same harassment from police officers. 

The EFF calls on SANTACO to embark on an aggressive vetting of the backgrounds of its drivers to ensure that they do not put their customers in the hands of repeated offenders. 

We call on the Transport minister, Dipuo Peters to put on a plan to ensure that all taxi ranks are under heavy woman centered security. It must be the number one priority of the government to address violence in all forms against women who to this day together with children, remain the playground of toxic masculine tendencies. 

With South Africa being the international capital of rape incidences in the world, extraordinary measures should be taken to address the societal ailment with urgency and determination. 

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 23 March 2017