Male influencers must now step in
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s lockdown address to the nation on Wednesday night took an unexpected turn when he used the opportunity to, for the first time, forcefully highlight gender-based violence for what it really is – a devastating epidemic that is ravaging our country.
He slammed the wave of violence being unleashed against our women and children in what he called ‘a brutality that defies comprehension’.
The country needed a man of his stature pulling no punches about the barbaric killing of women and children by the men of our country.
‘As a man, as a husband and as a father, I am appalled at what is no less than a war being waged against the women and children of our country,’ said the president, who mentioned the names of women and children who had been murdered in recent weeks.
The frightening reality is that our women and children are dying at the hands of their spouses, boyfriends, fathers, uncles, brothers, sons and grandfathers – violent men with no regard for the sanctity of human life.
They are not unknown perpetrators. These rapists and killers walk among us and live with us. They are in our communities, often even in religious, traditional or community leadership positions.
Yet, the men of the country do not take ownership for this repetitive and worsening cycle of domestic violence against the most vulnerable.
It’s almost as if we have become desensitised to the ongoing cases of brutal abuse.
Before the name Tshegofatso Pule became known, which sparked public condemnation against gender-based violence, the pages of this newspaper had been filled each week with countless reports of inconceivable crime.
Late last year in Nongoma, the
Zululand Observer reported on the senseless killing of a young woman on her way to a church service.
She was abducted by three men, forced into a taxi and then taken into a bush by one of the suspects – who tied her with ropes and repeatedly raped her. He gouged out both her eyes and visited her several times to check if she was still alive.
The perpetrator was subsequently handed a double life sentence – a verdict that regrettably will not bring back her life. Her name was not known and nobody spoke for her.
We regularly expose the catastrophic consequence of society’s moral decay, but apart from the usual utterances of condemnation, no one is really taking a stand to stop this festering rot.
Who do we trust when our socalled role models themselves are involved in such barbaric acts? What calibre of men are we raising in society today?
Why do our religious and community leaders only speak out when they have a stage after another woman or child has been butchered?
If the moral decay of society is not urgently addressed, then the Emergency Response Plan with its R1.6-billion backing will have little to no effect in alleviating this scourge.
The cold fact is that men are responsible for gender-based violence.
As the president said, this epidemic can be overcome, but only if we work together, if we each take personal responsibility for our actions and if we each care about the well-being of those who cannot defend themselves.
Silence is the friend of the perpetrator. We have a duty to report any abuse if the hurt and deaths are to stop.