President Cyril Ramaphosa says the National General Council (NGC) has agreed that the harmful practice of ukuthwala, the forced marriage of young girls, must be condemned without a doubt.

Closing the NGC in Boksburg on Thursday, Ramaphosa said the party’s government deployees would now be pushed to fast-track efforts to eliminate the practice and reinforce the state’s broader war against gender-based violence.

“The NGC agreed that the harmful practice of ukuthwala, the forced marriage of young girls, must be condemned without any form of ambiguity,” he said.

“There was agreement that the movement must urge its deployees in the state to strengthen and fast-track legislative and other measures aimed at enhancing the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on gender-based violence and femicide.”

The renewed urgency lands as South Africa confronts troubling data.

In 2021 alone, 207 child marriages were recorded, according to Statistics South Africa. Of these, 188 were girls forced into marriage and 19 were boys.

Thirty-seven of the marriages were civil; nineteen were customary. Stats SA’s Director for Education and Child Statistics, Dr Seble Worku, said the figures underline a crisis too often hidden in rural communities.

Ramaphosa last month officially declared gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) a national crisis, telling the G20 Social Summit in Ekurhuleni that systemic failures from sluggish policing to secondary victimisation continue to deepen the scourge.

“Delegates welcomed the classification of gender-based violence as a disaster,” Ramaphosa said, adding that the NGC has now called for an “all-of-government strategy” to confront the crisis head-on.

kamogelo.moichela@iol.co.za

IOL Politics

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