By Thato Mgoma
The Northern Cape provincial government launched a 90-minutes stage play named “Sekunjalo” as part of its observance of “16 Days of Activism against GBV” campaign at the Northern Cape Theatre on Monday.
The anti-GBV campaign was launched with the theme: “Accelerating actions to end Gender-based violence and femicide; leave no one behind”. The objective of the play was to portray the impact gender-based violence and HIV have on women and children.
The Northern Cape Premier Dr Zamani Saul was the keynote speaker at the launch event. Accompanying Saul were Kagiso Sonyoni the executive mayor of Sol Plaatje local municipality, Lerato Venus Blennies MEC for Youth, Women, Disability, Communications and e-Government, Desery Fienies the MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture.
In his address Saul said that the public should not solely rely on the South African Police Services to fight gender-based violence as it is also their responsibility as members of society to actively deal with such cases.
Saul acknowledged and lauded the Zion Christian Church which he said worked tirelessly to eradicate the scourge against women and children. According to the statistics provided by the Premier there has been 1331 reported cases of women abuse and 237 reported cases of children abuse in just three months from April 2023 to June 2023 in the Northern Cape.
In the play dedicated to the anti-GBV campaign one of the main characters called “Poppy” was physically abused by her partner who she depended on financially and for shelter. According to the storyline the community had to intervene to get Poppy’s partner arrested for assaulting her while she was pregnant.
The “Poppy” character faced a number of challenges which included being unemployed, pregnant and homeless. She eventually got help from her sister whose house was built by the Government and lived off social grants. With all the help she got raising her child “Sekunjalo”, her child grew up to be a beautiful woman who later acquired a tertiary qualification.
After the ceremony was done at the theatre some members of the community said that the play was a campaign by the African National Congress towards the 2024 general elections. This commonly held opinion was based on the fact that the particular political party was mentioned in almost every scene of the play. The play will be performed live in all the districts of the Northern Cape.
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