On 9th June 2020, the body of a heavily pregnant young woman, Tshegofatso Pule, was found stabbed and hanging from a tree on the outskirts of Johannesburg. 

In September 2019, following a string of violent female deaths in a short period of time, thousands of South African women protested against the government’s failure to handle the country’s rising violence against women, . The murders of these young women solidified the fact that violence against women is South Africa’s national crisis. The long battle for gender equality most recently culminated in a mass street protest amidst lockdown, and a  global virtual protest on 16thJune 2020, calling out South Africa’s “other pandemic”. Hashtags of #endgbv, #herlifemattered, and #sayhername swarmed social media, calling for immediate change to enable women basic human rights to life, respect and freedom.  

GBV ON THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE

GBV is defined by the European Commission as: “violence directed against a person because of that person’s gender or violence that affects persons of a particular gender disproportionately.”  It occurs as a “result of normative role expectations and unequal power relationships between genders in a society”, and can affect males, females and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. However, experts say that  GBV is disproportionately directed against women and girls, with the driving force being patriarchal power structures dominating many societies.

 Exacerbating  factors include lack of education, history of exposure to GBV - whether personal experience or witnessing GBV, and an ineffective justice system which does not deter perpetrators from re-offending. GBV can take many forms ranging from physical, sexual, and psychological acts. Some examples of GBV against women include domestic violence, sex-based harassment, female genital mutilation, forced marriages or online violence.

At an international setting, there has long been a call to end GBV, which affects around 35% of women worldwide. This is highlighted by the #MeToo movement which originated in 2006, but gained momentum in 2017. The movement aims to create awareness of a reality where women are sexually harassed and abused on a daily basis.

GBV IN SOUTH AFRICA

The people of South Africa have been resilient in campaigning to bring GBV to an end. However, despite countless attempts, there has been little to no change thus far. Framed as ‘the destination of femicide’, more than 2,700 women were murdered last year as a result of GBV. That’s one woman every three hours. Femicide is a sex based hate crime defined by the World Health Organisation as “the intentional murder of women because they are women”. It is the most extreme manifestation of GBV, and is widely prevalent in South Africa. It has been referred to as “a rampant disease that is festering in our society”.  In addition to this, before lockdown, an average of 100 rapes were reported every day.

GBV - including femicide - is not only affecting grown women, with female children also being targeted. Clinics providing support to victims of sexual assault state that they receive visits from children as young as 6 years old. Donal Zhou of Médecins Sans Frontières stated that many children were “violated before the age of 15”. A video produced by the organisation Women for Change SA, reported that daily reports of women being murdered in South Africa are common. They also stated that 41% rape cases involve children. 

GBV remains an issue affecting females from all socio-economic backgrounds in South Africa, with President Cyril Ramaphosa himself recognising that the country was one of “the most unsafe places in the world to be a woman”.

As a result of victims being trapped with their abuser during lockdown, over 21 women and children have been reported as murdered over the past few weeks. The police have reported that there has been a dramatic increase in violent crimes since 1 June, which has corresponded with more admissions to women’s shelters and clinics.

RESPONSE, PREVENTION AND THE FUTURE 

Following the 2019 protests, the government dedicated more money to shelters and places of safety, converted traditional courts into special sexual crimes courts, provided training to police, and issued more evidence collection kits. On 11th March 2020, the government also issued a National strategic plan, providing a roadmap to tackle GBV.

Community response has proven essential in preventing GBV, with organizations teaching pupils about sexual activity, violence and consent.  They also teach men to talk about anger issues and recognise their violent behaviour, in the hope that this will break the cycle. Non-profit organisations are also spreading awareness and bringing proposals to the government, including proposals to change laws and increase harsher sanctions for sexual assault.

Despite these measures, incidents of GBV and femicide are on the rise, and women fear for their lives on a daily basis. South Africans are angry, and are calling for an immediate response from the government. This anger is highlighted by a call for harsher penalties to deter perpetrators of sexual violence, with some suggesting the re-introduction of the death penalty. A petition to this effect has garnered more than 670,000 signatures.  

It is clear that the current justice system is inept where only 1 in 9 rape cases are reported, and a mere 4% of those cases result in prosecution. Given this, Professor Rachel Jewkes suggests that whilst the reformation of the justice system is a long-term strategy, immediate preventative action is required to combat patriarchal ideologies starting in the home and school. It may be that in the present, the government needs to dedicate programmes to unteach toxic masculinity. This could include the suggestions in The Embrace Project’s blueprint, which was submitted to South Africa’s Parliamentary Gender Based Violence and Femicide Work Stream this year.

The urgent need to eradicate GBV and femicide was aptly highlighted by President Ramaphosa on 17th June, described GBV as ‘a war being waged against the women and children of our country’. 

Ploy is currently a paralegal in London. She has an LLB from Swansea University and an LLM LPC from BPP University in Cambridge. She is interested in promoting human rights injustices and bringing them into the public domain, with a particular focus on children due to their vulnerable status. 

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