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Girls who wear mini skirts should be appreciated, not raped, says Mpumalanga community safety, security and liaison MEC Vusi Shongwe.

Shongwe was speaking during the provincial launch of the 16 Days of Activism campaign against the abuse of women and children in Mbombela over the weekend.

“Girls who wear mini skirts are not asking to be raped…These girls are beautiful and they need to be appreciated,” said Shongwe. “Community members must stop saying the girls wanted to be raped. Good men propose, they do not rape, and if a girl doesn’t want you, please do not rape her, it’s her choice not to have you.”

Shongwe said while men loved looking at women, their admiration should stop there.

“I’m warning men who like looking at girls in mini skirts and say bageza mehlo (they are washing their eyes). They must stop just there and not abuse them because if they do they are going to be arrested,” he said.

The MEC said it didn’t make sense that men continued to abuse women and children 11 years after the 16 Days campaign was launched.

“People still have not changed. Where is their humanity?” he asked.

He also called on law enforcement agencies to protect victims of abuse and bring lawlessness to an end.

“It’s no use for victims of abuse to speak out but, in the end, see no justice because of constant technicalities which ruin their cases,” said Shongwe.

Shongwe added that some women were abused in other ways, and not just through domestic violence and rape.

He said illegal abortion clinics or bogus doctors took advantage of pregnant women.

The MEC also handed over food parcels to poor households in Mataffin next to the Mbombela stadium.

Provincial community policing forum chairman Kevin Pillay said it was also up to community members to bring an end to abuse and crime.

Pillay lost his mother, Patricia, 53 and his daughter Yetska, 9, to crime in 2006.

The two were killed at his home in Valencia near Mbombela after a hand grenade was thrown into their room.

“It starts with us as the community to make sure criminals are kept out of the community. We need to report crime, especially against women and children. They are powerless and they need to be defended by us as the community,” said Pillay.

He said fighting abuse should go beyond the 16 Days campaign.

“We, the community policing forum and the police, are going to bring down all rape syndicates and women and child abusers. We will not let them feel free. We want them to feel that they are not welcome in our communities,” said Pillay.