Cape Town - Commemorating the lives of women, children and men who have lost their lives to gender-based violence, community-based initiative Action Unity hosted an all-night vigil on the Grand Parade.
The event, from 9pm on Saturday until 8am on Sunday, saw residents and organisations from Mitchell's Plain, Lavender Hill, Delft, Steenberg, and other communities flock central Cape Town in support of the anti-GBV movement.
The event’s organisers said they were inspired to create the platform to commemorate victims of GBV as a unit and to come together as a collective to strategise on how to collectively keep fighting for GBV and femicide free local communities.
The Breach Movement SA founder Tarryn Lee Bell said: “The all-night vigil was a success. I think it sparked a fervour within all of us to drive this revolution forward.
“It also gave us a moment to stop, breathe and remember why we are fighting.
“The vigil was not spearheaded by Breach, but we were all too excited to participate and support when Roegchanda Pascoe approached us.
“I remember at the time she had no resources, and the government was not forthcoming.
“However, she persevered and pushed to make the evening a success.”
While the Breach movement is not primarily focused on fighting GBV, Bell said the decision to support the cause was not hard to come to as she believes that poverty and the lack of service delivery also contribute to the GBV and violence in poor communities.
Bell said: “GBV is a fight that we need to tackle as a collective because it’s something we cannot wait for the government to do, because we have been doing that for years, and still women and children are dying.
“We need to be part of the teams formulating policies and projects to be implemented in our communities. We need to support one another, regardless of race or status, to see an end to the scourge that is GBV.”
