Good Party says missing Chanelle Plaatjies is face of SA’s growing GBV, femicide crisis

CAPE TOWN - The Good Party said that 16-year-old Chanelle Plaatjies from Paarl was the face of a growing gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide crisis in the country, and not just a name or a photo on a missing person's poster.

The comments come as a Paarl family is understood to be waiting on postmortem results to determine the identity of a body that was discovered behind Allandale Prison in Paarl on Monday.

Plaatjies has been missing for a week.

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Good Party secretary-general Brett Herron said GBV and femicide statistics showed that girls and women were no safer, despite the province's multi-billion-rand safety plan.

Herron added that it should be viewed as policy failure by the provincial government when rape and murder become a normalised part of childhood in working-class communities.
 
"We are six years into a "safety plan" that was sold to us as a solution. The plan was meant to reduce violent crime and reclaim communities. Instead, the province has poured billions into policing, while failing to make women and children safer. We need to stop pretending that this is working and we need to stop pretending our girls are safe."