Last week, the news of American singer and dancer Chris Brown's scheduled performance on South African shores spread like wildfire. And though many look forward to watching him perform, others are against the musician coming to the country.
At the forefront of expressing their disappointment over the concert is the popular women's advocacy group, Women for Change. The organisation started by releasing a statement on its social media, stating that the musician should not perform in the country because of his history of violence against women.
They also started a petition to stop the singer from coming to the country to perform.
Chris Brown’s history of violence against women, including his 2009 arrest for assaulting Rihanna, stands in stark contrast to the values of this global Anti-GBV campaign, especially in a country where femicide is five times higher than the worldwide average.
— Women For Change
And while fans of the singer deemed the organisation's act as “unnecessary”, “unfair”, “biased” and “terrible” – 3,053 people out of the organisation's 5,000 signature goal have signed the petition within a day of its formation.
“Women For Change is deeply concerned about the upcoming Chris Brown concert scheduled for December 14 2024 in Johannesburg. This concert will come just days after the world commemorates the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence,” their statement read.
“Chris Brown’s history of violence against women, including his 2009 arrest for assaulting Rihanna, stands in stark contrast to the values of this global anti-GBV campaign, especially in a country where femicide is five times higher than the worldwide average.
“Hosting Chris Brown sends a harmful message to survivors of abuse and undermines the progress we are trying to make in addressing GBV in SA,” the statement continued before listing all the times the singer had had a run-in with the law.
Women for Change further questioned how the department of home affairs had granted him a visa. They then urged the organisers of the concert to cancel it and called for the singer to be boycotted through the hashtag #MuteChrisBrown.
On the other hand, it seems that tickets to the concert are selling out fast. Having only been up for sale since Thursday morning, the traffic on the ticket master website requires one to wait for their turn to purchase. When SowetanLIVE tried to access tickets, we were shown that there were almost 2,000 people ahead the queue.
SowetanLIVE
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