AZAPO's Bring Khwezi Home campaign
The Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO)'s Gender Desk has since launched a campaign aimed at returning ‘Khwezi' (Fezeka Kuzwayo, a woman who accused President Jacob Zuma of raping her) back home. This is largely because we cannot understand why there should be one of us who is still in exile during this democratic period. If Khwezi committed any crime for reporting rape, she should come back and be subjected to the courts of this country; if no crime was committed, she should be a free South African like all of us
We believe that this month, the month when Khwezi and her month left the country for exile in the Netherlands, as asylum seekers, after the conclusion of the rape trial (8th May 2006) in Johannesburg High Court; and a month when president Jacob Zuma gave a blanket remission of sentence for certain categories of prisoners and parolees, Khwezi must be allowed back home as a citizen to enjoy the freedom that her parents lived and died for.
It is not right that Khwezi, after spending many years as a child in exile with her parents, parents who fought under an oppressive regime, should still be in exile with her mother not because they want to, but because the system drove them away. This is reminiscent of apartheid days in our views!
As AZAPO we think the case of Khwezi maybe similar to that of many women who flee Zimbabwe, Swaziland and such countries, only to be further victimised in countries that should protect them. We see how these women are victimised in our country today, and cannot wish this for any of our South African women, anywhere in the world.
At the time of the trial AZAPO admired Khwezi and lauded her for being one in nine women who report rape. When she left for exile, we made a call to the ANC and government to see to it that she was taken care of in exile. At that time, AZAPO said it was permissible that she goes to exile, especially when supporters of president Zuma made statements such as, "Burn the bitch". However, we don't think that it is still permissible that she remains in exile endlessly.
In country that is known to be a rape capital of the world, bringing back Khwezi can add support to rape activists in their fight against rape of women and children, and assist in calling on all women to report rape without fear of being victimised. The ultimate aim would be to deal with the following statistics:
- In this country, a woman is raped every 17 seconds (this excludes raped children)
- According to Rape Survivor Journey, "South Africa has some of the highest incidences of child and baby rape in the world with more than 67,000 cases of rape and sexual assaults against children reported in 2000 (http://www.rape.co.za/). It is further stated that, "Of South African men who knew somebody who had been raped, 16 percent believed that the rape survivor had enjoyed the experience and had asked for it". Strangely, this is the same statement uttered by Julius Malema in defence of President Zuma.
This campaign calls on President Zuma to do the right thing by making all necessary arrangements for Khwezi and her mother to come back home, and see to their protection inside the country.
In this campaign, AZAPO will engage the following relevant stakeholders:
- The Office of the State President
- The Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disabilities
- Moral Regeneration Movement
- Advocacy lobby groups such as Section 27, TAC, Gays and Lesbian lobby groups, etc
- Gender Desks of all political organizations in the country and
- The South African Embassy in the Netherlands
Statement issued by Manku Noruka, Head of the AZAPO Women & Gender Affairs Department, May 24 2012
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