ABUSE AGAINST WOMEN REVILED
Year-on-year escalation has led to crisis levels that can only be ended by concerted, united action
WHILE many women and girls are being physically, emotionally, psychologically and sexually abused, others find themselves in marriages of convenience.
Among them is a 44-yearold woman from Pretoria, who wished to remain anonymous to protect her children.
She said the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign should not only focus on those physically and sexually assaulted, but extend to others being abused in other ways.
The campaign, in its fifth day, ends on December 10.
She spoke about the challenge faced by many women who were being used by foreign nationals wanting to access South African citizenship.
She said South African women found themselves married to men from other countries, and left to raise children on their own.
This was because the men they were married to had achieved their goal of getting the citizenship they wanted, she said.
“I am married to a Nigerian man, but now that he has the citizenship, he left to marry another woman in his country,” she said.
“I met him at a club, fell in love, he proposed and we got married in 2002. But we separated in 2009 when he told he did not want me anymore.
“That was when I found out he had gone back to Nigeria and married another woman.”
Although she loved her husband, she said she realised she had been in a fake marriage all along and had found herself in a situation she never thought she would.
“It is only when you are already in a situation that you see you have been used. First, you get tricked that the parents can’t make it to the wedding due to finances or visa problems.
“You are also forced into a polygamous marriage you do not know how you got into. The children start talking about half brothers and sisters you do not know about, and as a mother, you just wonder how things escalated to that level,” she said.
The mother of two said she tried to divorce the husband, but failed as he did not want to sign the papers. She was instead threatened that she would suffer for the rest of her life.
“He threatens I will suffer although I am already taking care of our 15-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son by myself.
“This kind of relationship is not healthy for me or my children because we cannot have someone who just rocks up whenever he wants.”
She also said that not all men were the same, but the majority only married SA women for citizenship, and that women needed to be careful.
The Department of Home Affairs said there were 1 209 fraudulent marriages involving foreigners during the 2011/12 financial year.
It warned that the South African Citizenship Amendment Act imposed stiff penalties of up to 15 years in jail on both foreigner and the South African helping the foreigner to obtain citizenship by means of an illegal marriage of convenience.
But if a marriage was entered into without the consent or knowledge of one of the parties‚ it was void, the department stated.
This kind of relationship is not healthy
THIS year has seen an unprecedented outcry against the soaring level of violence against women in South Africa.
The rate continues to escalate year on year, despite laws, policies and interventions that seek to address this scourge. Statistics on femicide, rape and domestic violence are unacceptably high.
We knew this when the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation set out to research the causes of violence in South Africa. What we found in the study, “Violence against women in South Africa: A country in crisis”, was chilling.
According to the 2016 Demographic and Health Survey, one in five South African women has experienced physical violence. This figure is reportedly higher in the poorest households, where at least one in three women has reported physical violence.
A 2009 Medical Research Council study also reported that three women die at the hands of their intimate partner every day, a rate five times more than the global average. The rate of sexual violence is also one of the highest in the world, despite a myriad legal and policy protections and interventions by state and non-state actors to address the challenge.
This has left South Africa in a state of crisis. So what are we missing? What can we do to effectively address violence against women (VAW)? Our study attempted to respond to these critical questions from a little-explored perspective – that of the survivor of VAW. And we found that there are no quick and easy answers.
In fact, no explanation was considered universal or adequate enough to account for the high levels of VAW. A combination of societal, structural and situational factors, as well as individual stressors, all work to fuel VAW. Again, each explanation contributes a valuable perspective, underlining the complexity of VAW and the absence of easy solutions.
We found that VAW is a significant aspect of women’s experiences. Socio-economic imbalances, often exacerbated by women’s limited access to education, capital, labour opportunities and resources, partly explain the prevalence of VAW.
The evidence also suggests that most survivors experience violence throughout their lives, at times justifying or downplaying it. VAW often happens within relations of power and feeds on and induces multiple vulnerabilities, including dis- ability, economic dependence, identity-based inequalities and women’s personal circumstances.
Attempts at tackling VAW in South Africa must therefore consider these complexities.
So what should we do? As a first step, we need to prioritise VAW. While gender violence affects both women and men, the reality is that women are most affected. This calls for a focused approach to addressing VAW.
Next, we need to recognise that there is an urgent need to address the fragmentation and divisions within and among elements working towards women’s rights. It is important that a comprehensive national strategic plan be developed and adopted.
This means we must all work hard to ensure that the National Council against Gender-Based Violence is revitalised.
One of the main reasons for the persistence of VAW are the challenges within the criminal justice system, particularly within the police service. It is therefore crucial to address the systemic challenges within the police service in order to restore trust and confidence in the justice system.
Institutional support is not the only challenge. The lack of access to financial resources and support is a central barrier to leaving abusive relationships or even reporting incidences of abuse. We must therefore work to increase women’s economic empowerment through strengthening their entrepreneurship and labour rights, encouraging universal access to education, and providing access to capital and resource control.
Approaches to VAW interventions must encourage healthy parenting practices as a prevention strategy. It is also critical, when thinking through parenting, to recognise the wide network of influences on the rearing of children. Communities and institutions such as schools, faith communities and the media are critical in the parenting process.
Finally, the media itself has a role to play. Women’s accounts and perceptions of VAW point out that violence is a learnt behaviour. The media is identified as being instrumental in shaping individual perceptions of VAW.
All in all, we can see that South Africa is in a state of impasse at crisis levels of VAW. This realisation must now push us to collectively take action and #EndVAWNow.
Realisation must now push us to take action
Sibanda-Moyo is a gender specialist at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation and the leading author of the study. Follow her on Twitter @Nonhlanhla17