We Say Enough - Poem by Siyabonga Njica

Men!
We are slowly losing our women and children.
Slowly forfeiting the future of our phenomenal nation,
In aspirations of RAPE, DOMINANCE and DISCIPLINE.
Slowly witnessing the demise of our sons and daughters,
Building borders of battlefields and victimising our own kind within them,
Blind to the responsibility of protecting our families as men.
We have become perpetrators in our own households.
Sold our souls in beer holes for atonement of power and lust of acquiring the throne.
He strolls back home with liquor breath far from being sober,
Broken bones as he folded her fragile body over,
Told her he loved her just that tonight's supper somewhat felt a bit colder,
Her shoulders shiver with fear,
Clutches her rosary and wishes Jehova was near.
So our sons will study the artworks their fathers make of their mothers,
So our sons will inherit the marshall arts of how to strike an innocent significant other,
So our sons will falsely conclude that the male figure is a 'bread winner',
Therefore justified to trigger his fingers in plates of palms,
And plant his manly arms in the name of domestic violence.
They heard echoes of a siren,
Little Thandi couldn't take it and called the cops while she was hiding.
Have you heard the cries of our helpless women?
Have you heard about their desperation to escape the mayhem,
But can't because father pays the bills and feeds the children?
Have you heard about their misfortune of being manacled in marriage,
A savage binded to the abuser by a little bundle of joy.
Lastly have you heard that she blames herself for not being able to bear him a boy?
These are the realities that confront our modern day tenacious sisters.
These are the shortcomings of the democracy penned by our affluent, belly-out comrades and ministers.
These are the critical reasons why mama Helen Joseph, Lilian Ngoyi, Albertina Sisulu and many others marched to the Union Buildings for.
This is more reason why you and I should embrace the echo:
'WATHINT' ABAFAZI! WATHINT'IMBOKODO!
YOU STRIKE A WOMAN! YOU STRIKE A ROCK! '