'GBV is not a punchline': Kwankwa apologises to Faku over AI image depicting him with whip - IOL
UDM deputy president Nqabayomzi Kwankwa has distanced himself from a controversial AI-generated image involving Buffalo City Mayor Princess Faku, apologising to her and condemning the use of violence against women in political campaigning.
UDM deputy president Nqabayomzi Kwankwa has condemned an AI-generated image depicting him chasing Buffalo City mayor Princess Faku with a whip, saying imagery depicting violence against women has no place in politics.
Kwankwa said the fabricated image had been circulated after an earlier image depicting someone chasing him was shared, and he stressed that he had no involvement in creating or authorising it.
“I want to be unequivocal. This image is fabricated. I had no part in creating or authorising it, and I reject it in the strongest terms,” he said.
Kwankwa said depicting violence against a woman, whether real, staged or generated using artificial intelligence, was unacceptable.
Political disagreements should not be used to justify imagery that depicts violence against women, regardless of who started the dispute or what may have provoked it, he said.
GBV was not a punchline, he added, warning against excusing violent imagery as retaliation or a joke simply because one side believed the other had started the conflict.
“The moment we excuse it because ‘they started it’, we've told every woman watching this campaign that her safety is negotiable depending on who's scoring points,” he said.
“Gender-based violence remains a lived crisis for too many women in this metro and this country and no campaign of mine will ever traffic in imagery that trivialises it, however it was made,” he said.
Kwankwa extended a direct apology to Faku, of the ANC, for any distress the image may have caused, regardless of who created or shared it.
He called on everyone who had shared the image to remove it.
“The UDM's campaign will be won on ending unequal development, fixing the roads, water and sanitation this metro has been denied, and putting qualified people, not cadres, in charge of running it,” he said.
He also called on UDM supporters and social media page administrators to engage respectfully and verify content before sharing it.
Kwankwa said political campaigns should protect the dignity of all women, including political opponents.
“I call on all our supporters and page administrators to engage respectfully, verify content before sharing it, and hold each other to that standard of protecting the dignity of every woman in this contest, ours and theirs, because how we campaign says as much about us as what we're campaigning for,” he said.
