PRIORITISE EFFORTS FOR GENDER JUSTICE
THE silencing of victims of gender-based violence must be contested, gender justice advocate Gugu Nonjinge said.
Nonjinge, 27, who hails from KwaBhaca (Mount Frere) in the Eastern Cape, is the senior advocacy officer at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
From a tender age, she has been determined to stand up for and empower women. In high school, she tutored science and mathematics to her peers and girls in lower grades.
“In 2014, a year after I had lost my mother, I took it upon myself to extend my efforts to mentor young women and girls,” Nonjinge said.
“I searched for organisations that were doing such work and, as a result, I joined the Dream Girls Academy as a mentor and executive member.”
She said the violation of women’s human rights in the form of rape, femicide and domestic violence continued to increase, because society was rooted in patriarchal values resulting in women being marginalised.
According to 2013 statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), 35% of women worldwide experience either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.
“We need to start by prioritising efforts for justice, and hold perpetrators accountable,” said Nonjinge.
She acknowledged that South Africa had some of the most progressive laws and policies to deal with violence against women. However, it still faced a gender crisis of extraordinary proportions. “The need for us to effectively and deliberately address the pervasiveness of sexual violence is urgent,” said Nonjinge. “Going forward, our society must collaborate in creating cultures and norms that are intolerant of gendered violence.”
Based on the WHO’s 2016 data, Africa’s femicide rate was 12.1 per 100 000 women – almost five times higher than the global average of 2.6. Statistics SA reported that 138 per 100 000 women were raped in the previous year – the highest rate in the world.