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Gender-based violence still a major concern

Women march against gender based violence.
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As the country marks Women’s Day, gender-based violence remains a major concern for the country.

The 9th of August is recognised as a Women’s Day, a public holiday and the month of August as Women’s Month.

It serves to, among others, commemorate the 1956 march to the Union Buildings by more than 20 000 women who resisted the extension of pass laws to African women.

Despite their bravery, women and young girls continue to be victims of gender based violence.

They also remain under-represented in key leadership positions. South Africa’s part of advancing the empowerment of women and pursuing the defeat of patriarchy, the government regards Women’s Day as an opportunity to pay tribute to the many heroines of the women’s struggle and to review the progress made in addressing gender disparities.

Justice Minister, Michael Masutha, says transformation in the judiciary is one area of concern for government.

He says: “Back in 1994 there was only one woman judge on the bench. Today there 93 women out of a total of 253 judges with 67 of this being black women. Of the 2175 magistrates, 993 are women of all races while 710 of them are black. This statistic tells us a story about the long difficult but necessary journey of transforming our society from the colonial and apartheid fault lines into a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and equitable society envisaged in the constitution and bill of rights.”

Recent figures from Stats SA show that the murder rate of women increased by 117% between 2015 and 2016/17 a stark reminder of the persistent violence in the country.

But what are some of the underlying causes of these shocking revelations. Javu Baloyi, from the Commission on Gender Equality, says their own study also found evidence of inconsistencies in implementing existing legislation.

He says: “There is disjuncture between policy and implementation. There are also inconsistencies in the judiciary. You might find that a similar case in province A is committed and in province B as well but the cases are handled differently.

“I will give you the example of Manana and Pistorious issue and some guy in KZN. The other guy is given 22 years and these ones are given minimal sentences – that also makes people not to report issues of gender-based violence, and also the police playing councillors in issues where they are supposed to follow the rule book and also not protecting the victims or survivors.”

While government is grappling with effective programmes to combat gender based violence and gender equality, the reality is that these challenges require every sector of society to play a part.

Sonke Gender Justice’s Bafana Kumalo says a comprehensive response is required. This, he says, would involve coordinating the work of all stakeholders, including government and civil society. He says schools are also an integral part of the response.

He says: “One is prevention. By prevention we mean lets stop the violence from happening in the first place. How do we ensure that in the curriculum in our schools, we ensure that young people are exposed to creative ways of resolving conflicts, how do we change the mindset of boys who are growing up in a patriarchal environment where they think its ok to assault young girls and escalate that to all spaces where you have men who think its their prerogative to control women because unless we change that mind-set then we are not going to deal with the scourge of violence against women.”

It’s now all eyes on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Women’s Day speech to see how his administration is going to turn the situation around.

President Ramaphosa will deliver the keynote address at the National Women’s Day Event which will be commemorated in the Western Cape under the theme: “100 Years of Albertina Sisulu, Woman of Fortitude: Women United in Moving South Africa Forward.”

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