Image: Twitter/Cassper Nyovest
With increasing numbers of gender-based violence (GBV) and murders in the country, rapper Cassper Nyovest has called on all men to change and stop the violence.
He said women often don’t feel safe in SA, and shared his own recent experience of jogging near a woman.
In a video posted to Twitter, Cassper said, “A few days ago I was running and started approaching a lady who was in front of me. As I closed the gap between us and the closer I got, the more she kept looking back. As I got closer, she crossed the road.”
Cassper said he decided to be polite and greeted the woman. He said she reluctantly greeted him, and then he cracked a joke about “it not being easy”.
She didn’t laugh.
“She paused and that’s when she realised it was me. She seemed relieved and said:, ‘Yoh, Cassper I didn’t see it was you. You know us women in SA are not safe.”
Cassper said the incident reminded him that femicide continues to be an ongoing issue in the country.
“It reminded me that years ago we were marching for Karabo [Mokoena] and all the women who have been killed by men. I didn’t know that later I would be reading about Tshegofatso Pule and Naledi Phangindawo .
“We are back here as a country . We constantly forget that women and children aren’t safe in our country. As men, we need to do better.”
The rapper said men who are pushing the narrative that “not all men are trash” were the same as white people saying “all lives matter”.
“We know it’s not all men, but the point is to get us to deal with the issue that women aren’t safe.”