Rustenburg- North West Premier Thandi Modise has called on women to break the silence on rape and stop protecting perpetrators of sexual violence in their homes, workplaces, churches and communities. Premier Modise made the appeal in her keynote address delivered at the Provincial Interfaith Prayer Service held at Olympia Park in Rustenburg on Sunday.“We should name and shame perpetrators. Teenage pregnancies in our schools point to decay in our moral fibre. We fail our children when we cannot be their role models. We demand truth and accountability from our educators, parents and politicians because our communities are demanding truth, stability and service delivery,” emphasised Premier Modise in formally launching a campaign against the scourge of rape and gender based violence.

The campaign aimed at getting signatures of a million people who are denouncing rape by signing a pledge against sexual abuse of women rape will be taken to a deeper and higher level with the involvement of faith based organisations, men organisations, non-government organisations, community organisations and other social partners. The targeted number of signatures is expected to be reached by the end of next month.

The National Interfaith Council of South Africa-North West Chapter, North West FM and the North West Provincial Council on Aids are the latest partners to join the campaign that was initiated by Premier Modise. Motsweding FM is already a partner of the campaign that is supported by the Executive Council (Exco).

Modise said rape has reached an unacceptable levels and should be combated by all of us and called on all community members to join in the campaign to say no to high rate of rape taking place in the province and other part of the country.

“We are not going to sit back and do nothing as the provincial government about this sick behavior of men who are raping innocent members of our communities.