Cape Town - The Democratic People's Movement (DPM) has called for Parliament to introduce a bill towards enacting legislation that would enforce a life sentence without parole for femicide offenders.
The members marched to Parliament on Thursday, demanding justice for victims of femicide and their families. They demanded that Parliament implement legislation that would compel judges to hand down judgments that were tailored for femicide offenders.
DPM president Puleng Mpokotho said the killing of women and girls was five times higher in South Africa than anywhere else in the world, with one woman killed every three hours. Despite this, there was no justice for victims and their families.
“We are of the view that drastic measures are required to ensure that the perpetrators of violent crimes against women do not get away with it.
“Femicide offenders should not be allowed to get their lives back after having served a short sentence and being released on parole, causing more emotional and psychological damage to the victims’ families.
“Six years after being incarcerated, Oscar Pistorius comes out and the Steenkamp family says this feels like a bandage has been ripped off, and this is the reality of many families of femicide victims on the Cape Flats and across the country.
“There is no justice for women in a country where femicide is normalised, where the system constantly favours the offender, and where the victim is discarded with not a single piece of legislation that is tailored for femicide,” she said.
Mpokotho said although a 25-year sentence without parole was not a deterrent for femicide offenders, they believed this would afford justice to the victim’s family.
“Parliament should consider the trauma that the families of femicide victims are suffering by moulding the justice system into a just system that does not favour the life of an offender over that of the victim and her family.
“We are calling for justice for Reeva Steenkamp, Karabo Mokoena, Uyinene Mrwetyana, and the long list of unknown victims and their families across the country whose cases never made it to the news,” she said.
Parliamentary official Francois Basson, who received the memorandum, said it would be handed over to the Speaker’s office where it would be processed and be referred to the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities committee.