Founder, Khuluka Movement, Josina Machel, has described the judgement that acquitted her former husband, Rufino Licuco who abused her and blinded one of her eyes as a betrayal of justice.
Machel is the daughter of Graça Machel and Samora Machel, the first President of Mozambique; and stepdaughter to freedom fighter, Nelson Mandela. She was violently attacked by her then partner, Rufino Licuco in October 2015.
A protracted legal battle saw Licuco being convicted in February 2017 and then acquitted in June 2020, completely overturning the earlier judgment.
Machel however said on Channels TV Network Africa programme on Tuesday, July 21 that “it felt like a knife stabbing me in the stomach,” adding that her status has not offered her any privileges, likening her harrowing experience to that of “millions of women around the world and Africa, in particular. “
She wondered why the courts would ask her to provide eyewitnesses to a crime that left her blind in one eye saying, “the court has strengthened my resolve to look out for all other women around me and fight foe their dignity”
Despite being signatories to the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Maputo Accord, observed that “there are little to no success stories of implementation of these laws” – a similarity she believes is shared by African countries such as Nigeria, which has seen mass protests against sexual and gender-based violence in recent times.
She called for Justice4Josina and Justice4AllWomen while exploring the intrigues of her case and the vulnerable nature of most African judicial systems using the Mozambique example as a case study.
Machel concludes during the programme that “victims and survivors of Gender Based Violence “are not statistics, but individuals with names, faces and voices, even where they are not able to speak for themselves. It is against this backdrop that we say NO MORE”.