28 year old Tshegofatso Pule was found hanging from a tree with wounds stating she was stabbed to death. She was 8 months pregnant. This recent case is a prime example of the ongoing gender based violence happening in South Africa where there were over 2,700 women killed last year. 3 murders per hour. Cases of GBV (Gender Based Violence) included survivors that weren’t just adults, children as young as six would go to clinics to be treated after the assault.
Since the incident in early June, the South African government had reviewed their safety rules for women to stay protected, by spending more money on sexual crimes courts, clinics that provide aid for sexual assault survivors and extra training for the police force. These measures, however, would not have happened if it weren’t for the protests (August 2019). These marches had women striding in Johannesburg, wearing black clothing, and carrying placards, calling out GBV as a femicide. The effect of these protests managed to gain president Cyril Ramaphosa’s attention on this issue, making him declare it a national crisis.
The downside, however, is that these new modifications have not change
d the cases of GBV, especially during the pandemic. Ever since lockdown, Dr Licketso Fantsi has stated that there have been more rape cases than before, as women are forced to stay in their homes, otherwise, they would be stopped by the government if found outside, and be forced to go back home, to their domestic abuser. Fantsi fears that they may not have enough kits and supplies to care for every patient if the rate of GBV cases continues on at this pace.
Workshops run by the Justice Department have former abusers educate men on how they can recognise their domestic behaviour towards women, and how to change their pathway. The reasoning behind these workshops is to change the ongoing pattern of abuse from men, as it was discovered that these violent acts occurred from what they were taught at a young age, as one anonymous person that went to one of these talks said; “My father used to hit my mother in front of me as a child.”
As the issue currently has programmes which help fund medical centres to treat survivors including What Works To Prevent Violence and Skhokho Supporting Success, what the gen
eral public can do in order to help the crisis is by spreading awareness to others by educating them on the issue, as currently there is currently not enough attention on hashtags which revolve under the issue, such as #WhyIStayed with only 16.2 thousand posts, and #NotOkay with 273 thousand. By posting more GBV related content on different social media platforms, this will help contribute to the ongoing crisis, helping all women in South Africa.
Written by Mi CAO
Comments