This walk for a cause attracts over 5 000 participants each year and marks the start of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children campaign.
While it is wonderful that such events do take place, as they encourage Gauteng to take a firm and unified stand against women and child abuse, I could not help but contemplate the issue of raising funds.
After all, how will a financial contribution help to stop women abuse?
No, seriously, how do you, for example, apply R1-million to stop abuse? Do you fund support centres? That will not stop anything, because a support centre functions as a reactionary approach to an already committed abuse.
Do you rather fund a marketing campaign to raise more awareness of women and child abuse?
Reality is, no amount of money at this stage of the fight can prevent abuse from happening.
Quite frankly, perpetrators of abuse are quite aware of the damage they inflict. It is not a matter of not knowing, it is a matter of not really caring.
You can scream it from the roof tops that women and children have rights, but will this stop the verbal, psychical and emotional onslaught? I fear not.
And what about the victims?
Sadly, despite the message to report abuse as quickly as possible being clear, and to get out of a relationship before the Titanic hits the iceberg, too often this does not happen, in the hope that the perpetrator will change his ways.
We have to face the sad reality that we live in a sad world of hurting people, where those who are hurting then hurt others, while those who are being hurt cling to the frail hope that a bright day will dawn.
Despite the 16 Days of Activism campaign running for many years, domestic violence still continues, while rape of women and molestation of children inside and outside the family remain prevalent.
As a point of interest, this campaign runs every year from November 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) to December 10 (International Human Rights Day). The period includes Universal Children’s Day.
This year’s theme is marked as “Count Me In: Together Moving a Non-Violent South Africa Forward”. I wonder who decided we are not a non-violent country.
While it is true that we need to move forward to solve the issue of abuse, the tragedy is that, despite the good intentions of this campaign, it is not really working.
Abuse remains rampant, not just here in South Africa, but across the globe. Not just during times of conflict or war, but also in times of peace. Not just in countries where women have no rights, but also in country’s where they enjoy tremendous privileges.
According to the latest crime stats, Reiger Park sits with 92 recorded sexual cases the last year, with Dawn Park coming in at 81 (also consider that four years ago 118 cases were reported).
Yes, sexual crimes have dropped in the Boksburg North (34) and Boksburg (41) precincts, but we also know a lot of sexual crimes, including crimes against children, are often not reported.
Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko did mention during the National Dialogue on Crime and Violence Prevention that one of the worst manifestations of contact crime relates to the abuse of women, children and the elderly.
He is, of course, right. There is simply no excuse to abuse women in any form. Neither is there any excuse to hurt a child.
Why is it then that each year, despite all the pleading to respect women and children, I find myself penning a column about abuse?
The reason is that no amount of awareness or funds will stop the march of abuse. It is like shooting rubber bullets at a storming elephant.
Sure, we can support the campaign by wearing the white ribbon, or participate in activities, and we can even volunteer to support NGOs and community groups against abuse, but will this really help?
It has been said and needs to be said over and over – our country and the world are in an immoral decline. Lawlessness, disrespect and disorder abound.
There is simply something wrong with humanity’s wiring. Immorality and depravity are common in a violent world where decency and goodness seem to be wavering.
Unless this decline, where even the sanctity of life means very little, is halted, then abuse will only increase.
It is, after all, due to the immoral state of our societies that so many people are being hurt, and then they eventually disrespect and hurt others.
And yes, many of those who are hurt eventually cannot outrun or escape the mental anguish or the torment of the soul, so they end up on the doorstep of addiction.
The prevailing and increasing addiction to drugs, pornography and alcohol, which in its own right adds fuel to the fire of abuse, is thus given added impetus due to the demise of wholesome values and norms.
This year, we take note of how the campaign again calls for an end to abuse, but prevention always remains better than a costly cure.
Unless society takes a long, hard look at itself in the mirror, to address its path of self-destruction, then I fear this campaign will become as useless as a pig showing up for a turkey dinner.
