Last week I told you that the sex offenders’ register in South Africa is not open for viewing. I also told you that one child gets raped every three minutes. This week we saw the pedophile kingpin, #GerhardAckerman, get twelve life sentences for raping and facilitating the rape and trafficking of scores of children. He showed no remorse, in fact he is appealing the sentence. I watched an interview with this monster, and he doesn’t believe that he did anything wrong. An interesting belief for a barbaric beast that has 740 charges against his name. When did this #WarOnChildren begin and, more importantly, when did we become so desensitised? Desensitised to the point of apathy and inaction.

I’m Tonya Khoury, and that is a depressing start to a sketch of a ridiculous week in media across SA. Join me as I scratch, no claw deeply into the surface of the myriad of conversations that crossed your timelines.

Listen here:

You think #Ackerman is a horrific story? It is, but let’s chat about #Omotoso. Cast your mind back, actually further back, even further, that’s it …. Do you remember the preacher man who was caught trafficking girls as part of his “church”. Hundreds of your children, all in the name of religion. He was finally caught and his trial has been going on since 2017. That’s six years of administration delays for an ogre that has a tally of such horrifically heinous crimes to account for. This week, a witness, who had been raped at 14 years old was in court. She is 27 today. She told the court, through a veil of her tears, that Omotoso made her believe that the rape was the divine will of God. I shudder. This trial has been so problematic that it has started from scratch several times. Meanwhile the victims grew, and the network of pedophiles kept churning. And our kids have become fodder. This is #WarOnChildren.

While the courts were busy handling several witness accounts, there were several women outside the courtroom expressing their love for the pretend pastor. It gets worse.  Some didn’t believe their own children when they came forward with their accounts of the rapes. They believed #Omotoso over their own blood. How does that happen? What are we doing here? We don’t belong here. If we want to make this stop then let’s start by calling out, loud and clear, that we want that sex offenders register opened. #OpenTheSexOffenderRegister. We deserve to know; our sisters and our children deserve to know.  At the very least.

Kudos to #SterKinekor for broadcasting #SoundOfFreedom, the groundbreaking movie that aims to educate the world on child trafficking and the horrors of what goes on in our backyards. #Netflix refused to broadcast it, but they did broadcast #Cuties, a highly controversial sexualization of teens in a movie that caused outrage across the world. They didn’t ban #Cuties, and they didn’t stop airing it, yet today we are not allowed to see #SoundOfFreedom on Netflix. A documentary so important it should be viewed in schools. #WarOnChildren made easy.

And as for women’s month, that’s a joke, isn’t it? It is and I’ll tell you why. A woman pregnant with twins was strangled to death on her way to hospital to give birth to her babies. Let’s do all woman a favour and remember her name: #BusisiweNgubo! Our sister, 35 years old, a mother, and the only breadwinner.   Her unborn children, lifeless, her body discarded like scrap. Our MEC spoke and urged society to come together and demand an end to such brutality. We demand an end! We’ve always demanded an end. I remember a woman tearing off her clothes in front of our President to reveal the hideous scarring across her body from her ex-partner. That woman has still not seen justice, I’ll bet on that. We demand it, but we haven’t ever seen it. When is it going to be enough? Will it be when a woman is raped every 60 seconds in our country? If that’s the barre, then we are already there. That is a stat fact. #WarOnWomen. I’ll cheer you up, shall I? Guess what we got in women’s month? A women-only shebeen and a #MissSouthAfrica. Insert ‘shrug’ emoji here.

Let’s shift gears before you have a bad weekend. There’s hope on our political streets, well that’s what they’re saying. The #MoonshotPact saw the introduction of a #MultiPartyCharter which combines the DA (obviously), Action SA (no surprise), the Freedom Front + (please no) and the IFP? What, the IFP? Now that is a stroke of genius. The idea is that the four parties will agree on mandatory things as a unified voice. As I understand it,  a vote for the IFP would be a vote for the #MultiPartyCharter (or DA-led coalition if you prefer). Look you know me, I’m not a #GodZille fan but I would vote for this deck of political parties and pretend that the FF+ is not part of the hand, and this may just work. Look they are all calling it the #AntiANCParty, but yip that’s pretty much sums up SA. We are done with the ANC, well we are, aren’t we? I mean even the President isn’t present. Meanwhile #Marikana hits headlines again for the eleventh anniversary of a massacre. #WarOnMiners.

I’m done venting, you can exhale. This seems like a good time to tell you that for the first time in years I will be leaving SA soil for a dalliance with #HagiaSofia, the #BlueMosque and other fascinating things in Turkey. So, I must make haste and speed things up. #SenzoTrial is riddled with error, more bullet holes than the #Khumalo household. Complete 180 degree twists as witnesses turn tricky statements into half- truths. Talking about lies, a #LadyR expose showed us there is far more to this ship that meets the eye. We also got to see the ugly side of #Mashatile (more of that to come). Was there ever a pretty side? I forget. The #GreatTaxiImpoundment continues. #Zuma was released and we were relieved. #Motsoaledi saved someone on a plane; he’s the same guy that was in charge of the #LifeEsidemeni tragedy. Well done Aaron. The #BricsSummit is coming in a few more sleeps, but I’ll be eating #TurkishDelight and seeing the sights, leaving you to enjoy the show. Or won’t you? Watch our timelines for more analysis on this much talked about event.

And then beyond the sea, a New Zealand based South African female doctor continued the #WarOnChildren and was given the verdict she deserved. #LaurenDickason murdered her daughters. All three of them. She murdered her 2-year-old twins, Karla and Maya, and then she murdered her 6-year-old daughter, Liane. The #WarOnChildren doesn’t need borders. Then there’s a new covid variant called EG5. Where do they get these names, EG5, example 5? No man, and then you get to take a vaccine called Eris. I’m going to say no to this one, thanks for the offer, but it’s that one for the road that …, just no. We are all good in the hood let’s deal with the war on our sisters and their children,  shall we? The orange tan man, Trump; he got indited and Elon won’t be fighting Zucks anytime soon.

I’m Tonya Khoury – demand an end to the brutality. Let’s open that sex offender register good people. We can do that at the very least, lest we find ourselves in the heart of darkness. To quote from the novel of the same name written by Joseph Conrad: “Even extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence – but more generally takes the form of apathy.” Clearly, I need a week off, so I’ll be seeing you week after next. I’ll have a Turkish breakfast for you! Salaam