Subscribe
Daily DispatchDaily Dispatch
Subscribe

‘As a 19-year-old living in Gauteng, I’m afraid to live’

Kelleigh James has implored President Ramaphosa to act as swiftly on GBV as he did on Covid-19

2 min read
Kelleigh James, 19, founded SA's Black Doek Movement to fight gender-based violence in the country.
Kelleigh James, 19, founded SA's Black Doek Movement to fight gender-based violence in the country. Kelleigh James, 19, founded SA's Black Doek Movement to fight gender-based violence in the country. Picture: Alon Skuy

For Kelleigh James, being a 19-year-old woman in South Africa means she’s living on borrowed time.  

The activist from Eldorado Park in Johannesburg founded the Black Doek Movement in June. The catalyst: images of eight-month pregnant Tshegofatso Pule, who was found stabbed to death and hanging from a tree in a patch of veld in Durban Deep, Roodepoort. 

Wearing her black doek in solidarity with families who have lost loved ones, Kelleigh has not taken it off this month, the one in which 19-year-old Wits University student Asithandile Zozo, known to her friends as Kwasa Lugalo, was stabbed to death in Dutywa in the Eastern Cape.

This week marks a year since 19-year-old Uyinene Mrwetyana was raped and bludgeoned to death at Cape Town’s Clareinch Post Office. The former University of Cape Town (UCT) student’s death ignited protests against gender-based violence, as thousands took to the streets across the country under the social media hashtag Am I Next.

“There’s a genocide on women in our country. For every Tshegofatso Pule or Karabo [Mokoena] that we know of there are dozens of other murders in corners that we don’t know of. My message to men is just stop, stop what you’re doing to women. We are not trash, we don’t belong in a black bag, suitcases or in a veld. We mean something,” Kelleigh said.

Kelleigh James's movement is supported by her mother, Dereleen James, who is also an activist.
Kelleigh James's movement is supported by her mother, Dereleen James, who is also an activist. Kelleigh James's movement is supported by her mother, Dereleen James, who is also an activist. Picture: Alon Skuy
For every Tshegofatso Pule or Karabo that we know of there are dozens of other murders in corners that we don’t know of
Kelleigh James, Black Doek Movement founder

Having grown up with an activist mother, Kelleigh said she’s always known she wanted to be involved in community work. Her mother, Dereleen James, first caught the media’s attention in 2013 when she wrote a letter to former president Jacob Zuma. It contained a heart-wrenching account of what life was like with a 19-year-old son who was a drug addict at the time.

Now Kelleigh has penned an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

“I wear my doek today as a symbol of mourning, a symbol to remind the world that she [Pule] is not just another statistic, a symbol of reassurance to the family that you have a nation in your corner, voices that will continue to fight against the hourly rape, abuse and killing of our sisters, grandmothers, mothers and brothers, too; they, too, matter,” Kelleigh wrote.

This after it was reported that four women and three children were murdered in Gauteng in 48 hours. A 21-year-old Vosloorus woman and her mother were murdered, and her baby found in a pool of blood. On Monday, a 20-year-old woman was raped and killed in the Dali Mpofu informal settlement. Also on Monday, a 58-year-old woman and her two grandchildren were killed in their house in Soweto.

Kelleigh is calling on the president to deal with femicide as swiftly as he dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dear President Cyril RamaphosaI’m afraid to go to the bathroom at a mall, I might get raped. I’m afraid to be on the road, they might hijack and kill me. I’m afraid to speak out at work, I might get fired. I’m afraid to go for a run in my community, I might get kidnapped. I’m afraid to keep our front door open, they might come in. I’m afraid to take a taxi, they might dump my body. I can’t go on like this.As a 19-year-old youth living in Gauteng, South Africa, I’m afraid to live. My right to freedom, peace and living in comfort has been violently violated. How will I travel to and from home to university or work? How will I contribute to the betterment of this country if this is how I feel?I am paralysed by this morning’s news ... August was meant to be a month of celebrations, the ongoing killing of women and children during this month proves otherwise. It has been a month of mourning, pain and fear. This is why I’ve been wearing my black doek. I am in mourning.Mr President, you turned our lives upside down to protect us against Covid-19. This you did within days.Why can’t you prioritize our plight in the same manner? Their killers are being granted bail, Why? So they have a right to freedom? Those protection orders are not working, Mr President.We have to sit with our bruises in the long queues at court for hours on end because you don’t have enough resources at many of our courts. Your detectives are overloaded with cases. What are you doing about this?They can’t keep up, Mr President. Most times they tell us to go "talk it out". Why don’t you have an electronic docket system in place?Our dockets and statements are going missing; Perpetrators seem to know some SAPS members.So many companies in your country don’t have a GBV policy in place. What protection is there for women in the workplace, Mr President? Your social workers have no place to place our children and women in urgent need of care and protection. The waiting list is growing. Many have been placed back in the care of their fathers, who have raped and abused them. Why? So many of your social workers have no will and passion to assist and follow through on cases.Women and children are dying as a result of recycled cases.Your teachers who sexually violate our girls at school are allowed to teach at others schools. Why?Mr President, what number of women and children being murdered per day would warrant swift action?Today, 26 August, we [are] on five [and that’s] only Gauteng. Is this a good enough number to declare a genocide on SA women?
Open letter to the president