Women’s rights campaigners petition to stop Chris Brown from performing in South Africa

The South African women’s rights group Women For Change has started a petition to prevent Chris Brown from performing a show in the country, which has racked up over 27,000 signatures.

The controversial pop star sold out the 94,00-capacity FNB Stadium in Johannesburg in less than two hours, with demand being so high that a second night was added.

However, there was backlash over the announcement of the show given Brown’s history of domestic violence.

In 2009, Brown assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna and was later found guilty of felony assault. He was sentenced to five years probation, counselling and six months community service. In 2021, Brown was reportedly under police investigation over the alleged battery of a woman, charges that were later dropped due to “insufficient evidence”.

The controversy has also been fueled by discussions over South Africa’s particularly troubling levels of violence against women. It has one of the highest rates of femicide and gender-based violence in the world, where a rape is reported roughly every 12 minutes and many more victims are presumed to never come forward to the police.

“When I saw the news that Chris Brown was coming to South Africa, I was shocked and deeply disappointed,” said Sabina Walter, executive director of Women for Change.

“The petition was started to send a strong message that we will not tolerate the celebration of individuals with a history of violence against women. When someone like Chris Brown is given a platform in a country where GBV is at crisis levels, it sends a damaging message – that fame and power outweigh accountability.”

Women For Change has also said it wishes to know how the Department of Home Affairs could grant “a convicted abuser” a visa. In South African law, having a previous conviction can result in a visa being denied but there can be an exception for “good cause”, which are cleared by the Director General of the Department of Home Affairs.

Brown has previously been banned from entering other countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. However, he has subsequently gone on to play in the UK and in other European nations.

Brown has since faced a slew of other legal battles in recent years, including potential jail time for owning a pet monkey and a lawsuit over an alleged dog attack involving his housekeeper, for which charges were upheld earlier this year.

Then, in October last year, he was sued for allegedly hospitalising a man after he beat him with a tequila bottle and stomped on him in a nightclub.

Meanwhile, a documentary investigating Brown’s history of domestic abuse is set to be televised later this year.

Chris Brown: A History of Violence will come from the same production team that made the Quiet On Set exposé of the toxic culture at Nickelodeon in the ’90s. It will air in the US on the Investigation Discovery network on October 27.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the documentary will explore Brown’s “years of alleged offstage aggression, including intimate-partner violence, assault charges and even sexual assault allegations”.

For help, support and advice regarding domestic abuse, visit Refuge here or call the freephone, 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.

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