Cape Town - To mark International Women’s Day, a group of people gathered at the ribbon gate in Tokai to take a symbolic stand against gender-based violence (GBV) and to commemorate the life of 16-year-old Franziska Blöchliger, who was murdered there on March 7 six years ago.
They tied hundreds of ribbons of remembrance at the gate throughout the day for the 'Remembering Franziska' event, organised by Parkscape a community safety and environmental non-profit organisation.
Yesterday’s event followed SANParks’s decision to clear the area of Franziska’s memorial site, which was one of the blocks that had been earmarked for a prescribed burn.
SANParks will now preserve that area and incorporate it into the fire break for Blöchliger’s cross to be visible.
Parkscape founder Nicky Schmidt said: “The memorial site, with its cross, together with the Ribbon Gate, are powerful reminders that we must always stand against the scourge of gender-based violence and all violence committed against women.”
Parkscape hosted a remembrance event every year on March 7, as its formation was predicated by Franziska’s death, and a substantial portion of the organisation’s mandate was to create safe community spaces within the buffer zones of Table Mountain National Park, particularly for women and children.
Women of Westlake, a community service organisation that was active in finding Franziska’s murderer, was also at yesterday’s event to offer a prayer for all the lives lost to GBV.
Director Anthea Thebus said: “Six years has gone by so quickly, yet what happened to the innocent girl in Tokai Forest that day was still so fresh in our memory. It made us more aware as women and girls to always be on guard and alert.”
Blöchliger was jogging in Tokai Forest when she was attacked, gagged, beaten and raped before her body was abandoned in the bushes.
A murder trial followed at the Western Cape High Court in 2017 where a Westlake resident, Howard Oliver, admitted to killing and raping the teenager. In an affidavit he explained how he grabbed her from behind and then dragged her into fynbos at Tokai Forest.
Friends of Tokai Park secretary Alanna Rebelo said in an age of unprecedented extinctions and a planet that was fast degrading, they needed to do what they could to protect what was left.
Rebelo said that protecting nature was not in conflict with paying tribute to Blöchliger’s memory or showing solidarity with protesters against gender-based violence and femicide.
