What men will be taught at indaba

An East London man has decided to turn the imaginary social media “men’s conference” into a reality – but this time to tackle the scourge of gender-based violence gripping the country.

The organiser, Ntuthuzelo Mfaka, has even invited President Cyril Ramaphosa to the November 16 men’s conference at the East London Abbotsford Christian Centre, where men will be “trained” and “coached” on how to treat women and children.

Mfaka said the conference was aimed at:

• Building responsible leaders;
• Teaching men about their roles as leaders of their families and fathers to their children;
• Teaching men to support, protect and love their wives;
• Teaching men to be well-behaved in society;
• Producing uncorrupt responsible leaders with integrity, respect and honesty; and
• Coaching young men to learn from fathers.

Mfaka, 63, a taxi shuttle boss, said he got the idea for the conference from the men’s conference devised on social media in February by men who wanted to dodge their multiple partners on Valentine’s Day.

Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Khusela Diko, said the invitation would be considered.

“We can confirm receipt of the invitation to President Ramaphosa.

“ It is still to be tabled for consideration with due regard to the President’s programme.”

Speaking to the Dispatch this week, Mfaka said his decision to host the event was triggered by the shocking spate of violence against women and children in the country, such as the rape and killing of Uyinene Mrwetyana in Cape Town and murder of boxing champion Lee-Andre “Baby Lee” Jegels in East London.

“This is an event for men only to have a man-to-man talk, where we will acknowledge that we have failed our women and children and we need to establish the root cause and find solutions to end this.

“We need to acknowledge all the wrongs we have done over the years, which resulted in all this mess of abuse, violence, killings, rapes and drug abuse,” he said.

“Now we are to first establish the causes of all these acts of violence.

“Men will then take responsibility to rewrite history for a violence-free country.”

In his invitation to Ramaphosa on September 17, Mfaka wrote: “Our country is facing a spree of attacks by men who are cowards that rape women willy-nilly and they are coming from the same houses and perhaps same men. I then saw it fit to lead this [one-of-a-kind] conference for men in SA. We are committing ourselves into changing men into a better and peaceful, principled gender.”