As the country faces an alarming rate of gender-based violence, new political party, ActionSA, who has been turning Newcastle green with their recent campaigning and vow for change, has come under scrutiny after it was reported that one of its members allegedly made a distasteful post on Facebook which objectifies women in a sexual manner.
In the Facebook post, the man and woman appear to be on the beach. The woman, dressed in swimwear, appears to be undressing and is bending over whilst the man is staring at her posterior. The caption reads: “And that my friends is how I lost my finger.”
Mlungisi Khumalo, spokesperson for Newcastle Municipality, said: “The message does not represent the core values of any man who respects women in society. It is very unfortunate that the character of this individual has been unmasked at a time when South Africans are presented with statistics which state that over 10 000 have been abused, raped and murdered in the past three months. These crimes are often committed by people who have no respect for women in society.”
The municipality condemned the post and called upon like-minded South Africans to speak strongly against the inhumane objectifying of women “which degrades them to mere subjects for predators”.
Khumalo said: “Such predators have no place in our society. We are of the view that there is more rot than meets the eye. We reject the deliberate attempt of misleading the public that the individual’s social media page was hacked, and we note the convenient timing to deny this.”
Khumalo alleged that the individual has left his post on social media “to gloat at” and “beamed with excitement” when like-minded people reacted to the post in the form of “liking” the comments.
“He should hang his head in shame and we call upon his organisation to institute steps before he further becomes a danger,” said Khumalo.
The post has also caught the attention of a group of women who campaign against GBV and women and children’s rights. One of the women, who wished to remain anonymous, said that this type of post is not in line with the core values of ActionSA. “I registered to vote for the party but seeing that this sort of behaviour is tolerated without even an apology from the member is disrespectful. We as women need to protect ourselves and our children from predators,” she said.
However, Faizel Cassim, ActionSA mayoral candidate for Newcastle, has labelled the issue as a “smear campaign”.
“As the leader of ActionSA in Newcastle, I want to state that the statement by the municipality does not have any information for me to intervene and act on such as the name of the person and the post that is in question. To me it stands as an allegation as stated by the municipality, but with no backing. And until this information is revealed on the platform, where this allegation is made, I will act,” said Cassim.
