Masimanyane
About 100 activists from different women's organisations turned up at the Zwelitsha Magistrate's Court on Monday.
That is where a woman in her early twenties made her first appearance for allegedly killing a man whom she caught trying to rape her one-year-old niece.
The tragic drama unfolded late last week in a rural village near King Williams Town when the woman allegedly tried to get the man away from the child by hitting him with an iron rod.
He died of his injuries and she was charged with murder.
She was granted bail and the case postponed to 29 November.
Meanwhile, Dr Lesley Anne Foster, of Masimanyane Women's Rights International, said they were supporting the child's aunt because they do not believe that there was any intent to kill on her part.
She said the woman had reacted to protect the child.
"We turned up at the Zwelitsha court today in numbers. We brought a number of our women's groups together to support the young woman, who is only 23-year-old, and to say to the justice system that this is not premeditated murder," Foster said.
The woman, whose name is being withheld, was granted bail and the case against her postponed to 29 November.
