By: Zethu Gweva
“The continuous heinous acts of violence against women is evidence that Ubuntu ( Humanity) has been forgotten and today we are here to remind ourselves of our roots and to restore our identity,” Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality Speaker of Council Alfred Mtsi said on Friday.
Mtsi was addressing about 200 people who attended the BCMM Heritage Day Celebration at Fort Murray in King Williams Town.
He said that there is no more ‘Ubuntu’ as the rape perpetrators don’t behave like human beings but animals.
“People who rape and murder women without mercy do not resemble animals because animals are different. There are wild and domestic animals and those people who rape and murder women are like wild animals they do not have Ubuntu,” said Mtsi.
He added that culturally, a boy follows the traditional route of becoming a man through initiation schools, boys are taught that bad behaviour is forbidden.
“Today, women of this country are crying for help because of the same men that underwent the route of being a man. We are here today to remind ourselves of our culture and beliefs which is Ubuntu and respecting our mothers and sisters,” he said.
According to BCMM Mayor Councillor Xola Pakati this past week was covered by a dark cloud, as the city lost two young women and a child.
“All of them were murdered by people we call men. What we need to ask ourselves together with the chiefs is that, are the men that we claim we are grooming at the initiation schools, real men?” said Pakati.
He added that in the history of AmaXhosa, long before the colonial war women and children were not killed. He explained that a man does not become a man by circumcision or declaration but is determined by his actions.