Seek help to avoid assaulting women urges SANCO
14 August 2017
Cape Town - The SA National Civic Organisation (SANCO) urged men who are having personal problems to seek help instead of raising their hands against women.
The organisation said this in a statement expressing its disappointment in former Bafana Bafana striker Marks Maponyane, who was found guilty of assaulting his wife Syvlia.
''Maponyane has through this one incident lost the tremendous public respect he had because no one respects an abuser,'' said SANCO spokesperson Jabu Mahlangu.
''He would need to apologise publicly, seek counselling and work hard to rebuild his image as well as to regain the confidence of his fans and millions of soccer supporters who follow him as a match commentator on SABC TV sports channels.''
On Friday Maponyane was reportedly sentenced to a R3 000 fine or six months in prison, with a further R6 000 fine or suspended 24-month jail sentence after pleading guilty to a charge of assault.
Mahlangu said that there was nothing macho about lifting a hand against women and girls.
''Our courts must as a deterrent ensure that those who do, live to regret the moment they crossed the line by imposing harsher sentences to perpetrators."
He said public figures like Maponyane and Deputy Minister of Higher Education Mduduzi Manana, and Shaka Sisulu are supposed to be leading the fight against the violence directed at women, instead of being on the wrong side of the law.
Manana appeared in the Randburg Magistrate's court on Thursday in connection with the assault of a woman at a bar in Fourways last Sunday. Sisulu was also at the same court, for the alleged assault of the mother of his child during an argument over maintenance. He told City Press that he denied it.
