South African movement condemns killing of St Stithians pupil, urges wider action on gender-based violence
Not In My Name has called on South Africans to condemn the killing of 17-year-old St Stithians College pupil Cameron Waldeck-Crooks, as police confirmed on
Not In My Name has called on South Africans to condemn the killing of 17-year-old St Stithians College pupil Cameron Waldeck-Crooks, as police confirmed on Friday that she died from strangulation. The rights and social justice movement said the case should push the country to confront gender-based violence with more than outrage.
Waldeck-Crooks was found in a room at a lodge in Sabie, Mpumalanga, alongside 19-year-old former student Ethan Coetzee, whom police said had taken his own life. The deaths have triggered an inquest, while a post-mortem suggested the grade 11 pupil died by strangulation.
‘Not a women-only conversation’
Not In My Name said the public debate on gender-based violence cannot remain framed only as a women’s issue. Women, the group said, still bear the heaviest burden. But real prevention, it argued, depends on bringing men and boys into the conversation on purpose.
Spokesperson Boitumelo Thage said South Africans should demand spaces where men and boys are not just addressed, but encouraged to speak openly about masculinity and harmful patriarchal norms. The group also criticised how the media covers gender-based violence. “This case, and the way it has been publicly re…” Thage said, before the quoted remarks were cut off in the source material.
Broader pressure on schools and society
The killing of a school pupil in one of South Africa’s best-known private schools has again drawn attention to violence that cuts across class, age and geography. The details in this case are still limited, but the shock has been immediate. A teenager is dead. Another young person is dead too.
In South Africa, where gender-based violence has long dominated public debate, advocacy groups have repeatedly warned that prevention cannot rest on punishment alone. They have pushed for earlier intervention, more honest conversations about power and gender, and greater accountability in how violent cases are reported and discussed.
For Not In My Name, this case now sits squarely in that fight. The group wants the country to move past condemnation and into action — in homes, schools and public spaces where boys are taught what power should not look like. Police, meanwhile, have opened an inquest into the deaths at the Sabie lodge.
