The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to deal with the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) the same way he as handled the COVID-19 outbreak.
The centre says the President dealt with the pandemic laudably, showing decisive action and leadership and he must handle femicide and gender violence towards women and children the same way.
There has been a rise in GBV cases since alert level-three of the nationwide lockdown began on June 1.
On Friday, a woman’s body was found in a veld in Dobsonville, Soweto. The community found her body, which had wounds to the upper body, under a tree.
That came just days after another murdered Soweto woman, Tshegofatso Pule, eight months pregnant, was laid to rest. Pule’s body, with stab wounds, was found hanging from a tree in Roodepoort, west of Johannesburg.
The bodies of Naledi Phangindawo, Nompumelelo Tshaka and other women in other parts of the country were also found this past week.
In the video below, the Director at the CSVR Nomfundo Mogapi says GBV is becoming a pandemic in South Africa and it needs urgent attention from government.
COPE calls for stricter laws
The Congress of the People (COPE) has called for stricter laws to curb the scourge of gender-based violence.
“History will judge us harshly for abusing and killing women. Gender-based violence ( GBV) must be defeated. We must not just have slogans, media statements or condemnations. We must drive all these monsters into the sea. All men must isolate these monsters, they cannot be called friends. It is the responsibility of all of us to protect and keep our women and girl children safe,” says COPE spokesperson Dennis Bloem.
Police minister weighs in
Police Minister Bheki Cele has called on communities to play an active role in fighting gender-based violence, saying it’s a societal problem.
“Other people that are supposed to play a serious role in it are the families themselves. For instance, if you look at these young girls it has recently happened to, they’re collected from home, they’re collected from friends, or collected by the people they know. For the police themselves and the justice cluster is just that we arrest, we investigate properly, prosecution does its work and they’re thrown in prison for a very long time. I think it must be one of the cases where it’s very difficult to get bail.”
GBV cases on the increase since SA Level 3 Lockdown began:
