“We need to do better.”
This was the overarching message shared at a memorial held last week at Clareinch Post Office – the site where Uyinene Mrwetyana was raped and murdered three years ago.
On Wednesday 24 August, the Claremont community came together to commemorate the 19-year-old student and to again ask South Africans to unite against the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) that continues to rob our women and children of their futures. The event was organised by the Claremont Improvement District Company.
Addressing the gathering Reverend Chesnay Frantz of St Saviours Church said that as they met to remember the young woman, it was also an opportunity to change the narrative.
“So rather than doing things the way that Uyinene would have wanted us to, let us simply do things in such a way that we do better, for her sake and for all those who have fallen because of the evil of men,” said Frantz.
Preparing to close off with a prayer, Frantz put in “a disclaimer”, saying prayer without action is meaningless.
“If our actions are not informed by our prayers, it means very little. My first prayer for all of us gathered here today is that our prayers are met with action. That our actions are that of embracing and fostering one another and that our country South Africa and our continent Africa will no longer be a haven for the abuse against women.”
Imam Rashied Omar of the Claremont Main Road Mosque said it was important in tragedies like these, that the community bared witness to the sad reality of violence against women.
“It is an opportunity for us to acknowledge that we are failing our women and we come to God and we ask God that we do better.”
He said we needed to recognise the deeply patriarchal society we live in that marginalises women. As an example, he mentioned that in some mosques, women were not allowed to enter.
He said that it was this kind of mindset, of pushing women to the back, excluding women, that was also part of the psyche that causes violence against women.
“I am using examples of my own culture. I am sure you have many other examples in your own cultures where we can do much better in affirming the dignity and the rights of women,” said Omar.
Col Maree Louw, station commander at Claremont Police Station, said, with the police station being a block away from the post office where Uyinene was murdered, the police have been asked why they weren’t there.
“A perpetrator plans his actions and when the doors close behind the victim, the police is not there. It is just the victim and the perpetrator at that stage.”
Louw said it was important to educate our young girls and our children.
“We need to make them aware of the dangers out there. Our children are not aware. They go out feeling safe. Everybody feels safe walking into a post office. You don’t expect anything to happen to you. Until it happens. It can happen in your own home. It can happen in your office at work.”
This time three years ago, the nation was in shock as the details of the student’s murder by Luyanda Botha, a 42-year-old man who worked at the Clareinch Post Office, began to emerge.
According to the summary of facts accompanying the indictment handed up in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court in November 2019, Botha had lured Uyinene to the post office after hours on Saturday 24 August to collect a parcel of clothes ordered online (“Uyinene Mrwetyana’s body was hidden in Post Office safe overnight, says State”, News24, 7 November 2019).
In the early hours of Monday August 26 2019, her remains were found in a field in Lingelethu West by police officers on routine patrol. Botha was arrested four days later.
He subsequently confessed to killing her and was handed three life terms in jail for her rape and murder. Katherine Christie, councillor for Ward 58, who attended the memorial in her private capacity told People’s Post that her daughter, Grace, and her friends were among those who combed the streets of Claremont, looking for Uyinene shortly after her disappearance.
She said that the two young girls had both been at a boarding school in Grahamstown. With that experience in common, they became friends when their paths crossed again at the University of Cape Town.
“Grace was just getting to know her. She was an enjoyable person, very dynamic, a feminist, a very creative, beautiful, clever girl.”
Christie said as the hours passed and Uyinene remained missing, there was this terrible feeling of dread in knowing that the longer it took to find her, the less chance there was of her being found alive.
“Living that experience through my daughter, it was devastating. The pain of my daughter losing her friend and that indignation, that horror, that a man, a public servant in a position of trust, could do that.
”Christie said with the number of rape, murder and incidents of violence against women in our country being among the highest in the world it was a matter of survival that we teach our daughters to be suspicious of men and not to give anyone the benefit of the doubt.
“They have to prove themselves to be trustworthy first. We have to, unfortunately, and it is very sad, but we have to if we want our daughters to live into adulthood and have families of their own.”
She felt it was important that Uyinene’s memory be kept alive in Claremont.
“It helps us to process it. I feel it honours her family and it honours her parents to know we will never forget. We are still outraged. She said the memorial also served to remind the local, provincial and national government of their charge.
“The responsibility they have to protect women. Violence is so endemic in our society, so we should continue to remember this. In a way, it is a calling out for help,” said Christie.
