Cape Town - President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday addressed thousands of protesters outside Parliament during Thursday's mass gathering against the abuse and violence directed at women and children.
The spontaneous protests come after the country has seen a number of violent crimes directed at women and children which have made headlines in recent weeks and left the country reeling.
“I come before you with great humility, I stand before you with a deep sense of feeling. You have given me your memorandum and I can see all the messages on the placards that you are holding and I’m internalising all of them," Ramaphosa told the protesters on Thursday.
“We know that you saying enough is enough, I agree with you that indeed enough is enough. In exactly one hour, I will be addressing the entire nation on the measures that we are going to take. And some of the things that I will be announcing are set out in your memorandum, we will be responding instantly to what you have set out in your memorandum,” Ramaphosa said.
Laura from Africa Unite started a petition to urge the government to declare a state of emergency with regards to gender-based violence. Video: Marchelle Abrahams/IOL
On Wednesday, a crowd, made up of mainly young people from various civil community organisations and students from universities and schools across the city, gathered outside the CTICC, chanting struggle songs and holding posters on which was written "enough is enough" and "stop killing women and children".
The protesters, during the gathering on Wednesday said they were not willing to listen to any government official and demanded that Ramaphosa come out to address them on how he is planning to stop the scourge of abuse directed at women and children in the country.
Video: Marchelle Abrahams/IOL
Some in the crowd chanted "bring death sentence back".
On Thursday morning, the President had to cut short his planned participation at WEF Africa to address protesters at Parliament who had promised to shut down the country unless Ramaphosa came to engage them.