South Africans call businesses against sexual violence

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG (AA) - Hundreds of South Africans on Friday demanded businesses fund a campaign against gender-based violence in the country suffering from high incidents of rape and murder.

Protestors gathered outside the Johannesburg Stock Exchange -- the largest in Africa -- to seek the attention of publicly-listed companies.

Violence against women has been in the spotlight in South Africa for the past two weeks following the brutal murder of several woman including a 19-year-old student which sparked nationwide outrage and protests.

"We want money to be committed by big businesses to fight against gender-based violence. We see there is uncomfortable silence from government and business," Keitumetsi Moutloatse, chairperson of the Black Women Caucus told demonstrators.

"Business is quiet and complacent. We want business to be loud and support the fight against woman abuse," another protest leader told the crowd.

The demonstration comes barely a day after the South African police released its annual crime statistics which showed over 40,000 recorded rapes in 2018 -- roughly one every 15 minutes.

Statistics also show that eight women were murdered in the country every day.

Nicky Newton-King, Chief Executive Officer of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, received the protestors' list of demands and promised to forward it to business leaders and companies listed at their stock market.