The Union Buildings lawns were the scene on Thursday for a gathering to pray against the scourge of femicide gripping SA.

Caroline Makoti‚ the organiser of the prayer gathering‚ said she believed prayers needed to complement marches staged in parts of the country.

A number of women have been killed in SA‚ many of them in Gauteng‚ over the last few weeks.

As a result‚ activists have hosted marches to protest against the killings.

Speaking to reporters at the Union Buildings‚ Makoti said prayer should go hand in hand with gender and social activism.

“I believe that God will listen to us‚” said Makoti. “It’s important for us to be active in these things.

“We don’t need to just march and talk. We need to do something to reach out to these young girls.”

Identifying herself as a multiple rape survivor‚ the 39-year-old Bloemfontein resident said young girls needed to be taught to talk out about wrongs committed against them.

“We’re not teaching our girls [to speak out]. I didn’t talk until I was old and married.”

Makoti is a mother of a nine-year-old daughter‚ whom she said she feared for.

Pamela Zulu-Moema‚ a pastor leading the prayer‚ said she hoped culprits in the Thembisile Yende murder case would be arrested speedily.

An Eskom employee‚ 29-year-old Yende was found dead at her office in Springs this week. “The Yende case has made me very sad‚” said Zulu-Moema.

“Somebody knows something. There’s nothing that happens under the sun and nobody sees. But because of selfishness and ego‚ no one is saying anything.”

Zulu-Moema called on society to “go back to prayer and ubuntu”. “In the past you’d not sleep in the streets. But these days it’s everyone for himself.

“If we can mobilise the fibre of prayer and also call back the spirit of ubuntu‚ we can begin to know that life is valuable.”