My Wave: Women use various platforms to raise awareness on GBV

IT’S been an emotional week for South African women.

The gruesome femicide of UCT student, Uyinene Mrwetyana and the four siblings who were allegedly murdered by their father in Wyebank are just two incidents that sparked mass outrage and awareness about all spheres of Gender-Based Violence (GBV).

Women all over the country have been exceptionally brave in creating a space to expose their abuse and the men who have violated them physically and emotionally.

Two online pages on Twitter that have done an exceptional job in exposing rapists by receiving anonymous messages from victims who are probably afraid of receiving backlash from their abusers and rapist apologists.

ALSO READ: Women’s Month is viewed as patronising 

After all, victim blaming is a serious issue in South African rape culture. These pages are called Durban Survivors and #AmInext.

These Twitter pages have provided a platform for rape victims to reclaim their power from their abusers. The pages also sparked some much needed discourse on Gender-Based Violence, misogyny and men holding their abusive peers accountable.

These platforms also exposed some well known celebrities in the music industry and on Sunday, presenter Tshepi Vundla, accused her ex-fiancee of physically abusing her during their relationship.

He vehemently denied the accusations by saying “Tshepi Vundla used to hit me, I am aware that I emotionally abused her and I take ownership of that.” Like one form of abuse is better than another?? what an idiot.

This exhausting week has been an endless cycle of a majority of men ignoring the issue at hand and women being brave enough to share their traumatic experiences.

ALSO READ: #WomensMonth is over, but the fight against gender-based violence isn’t 

An important thing I learnt this week is that claiming that Gender-Based Violence is a problem with certain individuals is an extremely problematic narrative and by individualising the problem, we as men are essentially ignoring or denying that there is a larger systemic problem at hand.

Men who individualise Gender-Based Violence are denying that we, as men, benefit from a system that grooms us to internalise and behave in ways that indicate that women are subordinate to us.

UKZN Westville student, Tersia Erasmus, organised a “Justice for Women” march which saw more than 3 000 women and a few men peacefully walk from the promenade to Ushaka.

The peaceful protest featured a few speeches at the end of the walk with young women paying tribute to the late Uyinene and some creative and defiant placards were on display.

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