Rape issues must focus on the perpetrator and not the victim, urges social worker Dr Jessica Johannisen

A Cape Town-based social worker focusing mainly on issues of children and women abuse has called on society to desist from clinging to archaic phrases such as ‘boys will be boys’ and ‘women will be children,’ saying such language tended to perpetuate and justify violence against women and children.

Dr Jessica Johannisen, manager of the Case Management Services at the Durbanville Children’s Home in Cape Town, was addressing attendees of a Training Room Handover at the Wynberg SAPS on 10 December. The training room has been refurbished by Avbob to suit the needs and demands of the fight against gender-based violence and femicide.

“It is the use of such phrases coupled with the abundance of substance abuse, poverty, and the continued existence of a patriachal society in our midst that is fuelling the horrendous acts of violence against women and children in our country.

“Statements such as ‘woman raped after a few glasses of wine’ tend to diminish the fact that she was raped. Some of us think GBVF violence only affects certain members of society but that statement is neither here no there as this violence knows no class or status and affects all of us,” Johannisen said in her video address.

She urged society to move the focus away from the victim to those who inflicted the horrendous act against the other person. “GBVF predominantly affects women but we understand that it affects all of us but the majority of the victims of this are women and perpetrators are men.”

She equated this to the days of apartheid where propaganda developed words of hate that were bombarded on us. Time has come also in the fight against GBVF for us to desist from using archaic phrases and words and develop new words of love. Changing the language we use can have a catalyst effect and move us away from violence,” she said.

Avbob’s general manager for corporate affairs and chairperson of the CSI committee Adriaan Bester said South Africa is tops in the world as a murder country and said ‘this was not a trophy we wanted to receive and is not a plausible thing to have nor an honour’.

He pledged Avbob’s continued work and involvement in the fight against gender-based violence through its partnership with the Tears Foundation. “We will endeavour to make the necessary funds and other resources available.”

SAPS Wynberg’s Lieutenant Colonel William Chauke, commander of the SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit, pledged to work even harder in the fight against gender-based violence.

“The refurbishment of the facility will inspire us to double-up in the work we do. We urge Avbob and the Tears Foundation to hold us accountable and monitor what we do,” he said in his words of appreciation for the refurbished facility.