Dump platitudes, gimmicks and deal decisively with GBV

In the wider context, there must be greater efforts to empower women, the more so since many families are headed by single women

The annual ‘16 Days of Activism’ campaign is intended to highlight the scourge of genderbased violence. However, year in and year out, the grim statistics for rape, assault and murder indicate this campaign has not made as much as a dent. Instead, the opposite occurs and each December the campaign provides occasion for us to note how despite all the speeches and slogans from politicians, women and children remain unsafe and at risk in our province, along with the rest of SA.

A society cannot be considered free unless its women are free; this means we remain in shackles.

It is most unfortunate that this year, premier Oscar Mabuyane hit an off-key note at the provincial launch of the campaign, donning lipstick as a means to raise awareness of GBV and, bizarrely, warning women that their male partners could turn out to be as dangerous as pitbull terriers.

Unsurprisingly, the premier’s approach was sharply criticised by GBV activists.

We think it is high time platitudes and gimmicks were dumped in favour of a carefully considered strategy that would make a real difference to the lives of women and girls in the Eastern Cape and the rest of SA.

If we must have a 16-day campaign, then instead of speeches and posters, we would like to see 16 days of announcements about bold, new measures that would make an impact.

A good start would be to immediately improve training — including much needed sensitisation — for police and healthcare workers. The legal system needs to become victim sensitive and the government must implement measures to fast track GBV cases, possibly through dedicated courts. Also highly welcome would be more dedicated rape centres and more DNA testing centres. As well as emergency shelters, there needs to be longer term accommodation to assist women fleeing abusive partners.

In the wider context, there must be greater efforts to empower women, the more so since many families are headed by single women.

It was our iconic president, Nelson Mandela, who warned: “As long as women are bound by poverty and as long as they are looked down upon, human rights will lack substance.”

From this it follows that it is crucial to have a societywide, ongoing drive to address the toxic masculinity that continues to flourish in so much of our society.

We look forward to Mabuyane dumping the lipstick in favour of real action to end GBV.