On 26 November 2020, Executive Mayor Masina’s opening words at the City of Ekurhuleni’s
council meeting identified Domestic violence as the most prevalent form of violence in the
Southern Region of the city, which includes Thokoza.
Thokoza is a township located south east of Alberton and was once the hub of civil unrest in
1990. The high frequency of intimate partner violence present in the brown homes of
Thokoza residents, is testament of the unfortunate legacy of pain left by the Apartheid
government.
Many of these homes have suffered gravely from the mass unemployment that has resulted
from the nationwide economic lockdown. Essentials such as food and toiletries have been a
struggle for members of the Thokoza community to get a hold of.
Environments such as the one elaborated above, are specific to spaces in which Gender-
Based Violence thrives.
The toxic and complex ecosystem at play requires a great deal of positive influence to
disrupt it. We need to drive education of gender equality supported by infrastructure
development, increased investment in opportunity creation for members of the community as well as conscious improvement of fractured family dynamics in black township homes.
Big solutions are required for these big problems. We wish we could supply them to the
sisters of our Thokoza community in small packets of brown and crisp antidote; but we
cannot.
Muse Afrika is only crawling... but the world has aged. We tread on soil 4,5 billion years old;
nurturing the potential for radioactive growth. But so do other men of confused motive to
destroy.
We are pleading... begging the world to grow their own gardens of nutritious fruits. Pick them off your trees with care and hand them over to the destitute. Muse with us as we deliver our little baskets of ingredients to the young sisters - the real fighters of this human troop.
Thokoza - to be happy... one day it will be a youthful garden of good.
P.S.
Thank you to the beneficiaries of the food packages for welcoming us with smiles and
collaborating with us during these trying times. Your patience meant everything to us. Your
community is everything to us.
