‘Real’ men’s imbizo to tackle GBV

Conversations on International Men’s Day

FOLLOWING the satirical Men’s Conference which poked fun on social media on Valentine’s Day, a group of South African men will launch the #NoExcuseRealMen Conference to tackle issues that directly affect men.

The conference will take place from November 16-19 in Gauteng to commemorate the International Men’s Day which is observed on November 19. The venue for the event is yet to be confirmed.

Growing Up Without A Father South African Foundation (Guwaff) is the organiser of the conference and aims to engage men in conversation on various challenges which they encounter on a daily basis. These include gender-based violence, mental health issues, #MenAreTrash, unemployment and boy children.

The speakers will include former Bafana Bafana player Mark Fish, advocate Lesley Sedibe, Dr Fundile Nyati and Siyabulela Jentile, among others.

“The main reason why the conference came about is due to the recent abuse and attacks the women of the country continue to face and unfortunately, the boy child is always involved,” Charley Pietersen, author and chief executive of Guwaff, said. He said his book, Growing Up Without A Father, which talks about the struggles of a boy child, will also be discussed during the conference.

“The book addresses the needs of our vulnerable, yet valuable, boys who are most often raised by grandparents and single mothers. Many of the boys in our nation experience absent fathers,” Pietersen said.

He said the reason behind the word “real” in the title of the conference was because in the previous year there was a “fake” men’s conference.

The foundation’s goal is to have conferences that will in future result in more men discussing problems and solutions.

“This conference will be the blueprint for other conferences to come, to work on what was discussed and how to implement solutions to the problems that were detected in the last conference. This conference is also there to encourage (males) to be better husbands, fathers and sons to their families,” he added.

The conference will also tackle issues such as physical health awareness, in particular, prostate cancer and responsible drinking, among others.