​Lebo Mashile, the writer, TV presenter, poet and activist, visited Thokoza Park Station accompanied by ten (10) entertainers to celebrate Women’s Month on Wednesday, 22 August 2012.
Results from Rea Vaya’s customer satisfaction survey indicated that most passengers were female. As a result, the company’s marketing team proposed that Women’s Month activities take the form of poetry recitals and music.

Mashile performed poetry at Rea Vaya Thokoza station. She was accompanied by Clr Rehana Moosajee, the Member of the Mayoral for Transport in the City of Johannesburg. The entertainers serenaded passengers at the stations and in buses. Their instruments were including flute, guitar and bass.
reavaya22MMC for Transport , Lebo Mashile and Commuters
Apart from the entertainment, Nwabisa Ncukana spoke against women abuse. Ncukana was physically harassed by taxi drivers at the Noord Taxi rank for wearing clothes that the drivers deemed inappropriate. Her ordeal was reported widely in the media, and was a catalyst to action for several women’s activist groups.

The Rea Vaya marketing team explains: “This activation opportunity aims to leverage off Women’s Month by positioning Rea Vaya as a transport system that cares for its passengers, in this particular instance its women passengers.

The activation also served to highlight Rea Vaya as a ‘women friendly’ transport system.

“In addition, research has shown a correlation between the increase in poverty and the abuse of women. In line with alleviating poverty, Rea Vaya aims to address one of the by-products of poverty, that being women abuse.”

It aims to remind women that “they are an important part of society and that they should celebrate their womanhood with pride and dignity, and if need be to protect it”.

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