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President Cyril Ramaphosa has accepted a memorandum from protestors outside of Parliament this morning, and announced that he will address the nation on specific issues raised in the memorandum in an effort to combat gender-based violence.

“Enough is enough, and we will act on that,” Ramaphosa said. “We must declare a state of emergency – I will be addressing that issue as well. The issues that we have set out here, such as there are harsher penalties, is precisely what we can address.”

“We are going to take a firm stand, we essentially are going to draw a line in the sand and make sure that as a nation, as a government, we heighten the protection and the defence and the safety of the women of our nation,” he added.

The South African president also said that he will be addressing harsher penalties, and advocate that convicted rapists will get a life sentence without parole or bail.

“Men who rape women, men who kill women, men who do all these things that abuse women do not belong in South Africa.”

10 students were arrested yesterday following a day of protests in Cape Town, and have since been released. The protests aimed to inspire action to be taken against the serious problem of gender-based violence in South Africa.

The 10 students arrested were released at 1am this morning and will now face charges of public violence and will appear in court once formal charges are laid against them.

Many were outraged when videos surfaced of water cannons being used to disperse protestors gathered near the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), where the three-day-long World Economic Forum (WEF) event is currently being hosted.

The protestors made their way to the CTICC where President Cyril Ramaphosa was speaking as they wanted him to address the gender-based violence.

Protestors also gathered on FW de Klerk Boulevard to stage a sit-in to draw the President’s attention.

A planned protest is currently occurring outside of Parliament, where a massive crowd of protestors dressed in black are gathering to oppose gender-based violence.

Another peaceful protest is underway at Camps Bay High School.

Picture: Angel Campey/Twitter

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Lucinda is a hard news writer who occasionally dabbles in lifestyle writing, and recent journalism graduate. She is a proud intersectional feminist, and is passionate about actively creating a world which is free of discrimination and inequality.