For two weeks, the walkway of the Waldorf Arcade has housed rows of makeshift bedding, screaming children and exhausted refugees begging the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to remove them from South Africa.

Machel, daughter of former first lady Graça Machel, recounted her experience as a survivor of violence at the opening plenary for the 2019 Sexual Violence Research Institute Forum held on Tuesday in Cape Town.

Four years ago, on 17 October 2015, Machel was assaulted by her then-partner, a wealthy Maputo businessman, inside his car. She was hit on the head three times and lost her sight in one eye.

In 2016 and 2017, 46.7% of those assaulted in South Africa were women according to a 2018 Statistics SA report. Out of the overall sexual offences, 68.5% of victims were women. The report also noted that while the overall crime rate has decreased between 2013 and 2017, violent crime against women has drastically risen.

Refugees and asylum seekers have camped outside the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) at the Waldorf Arcade in Cape Town for over a week. There are over 200 people participating in this protest. They say they are victims of xenophobia and are demanding to be resettled outside of South Africa.