I wish to reply to the letter in the News dated 17 July 2020 with headline ‘Stop gender-based violence – Police’.
A lot has been said in the news about GBV, which included numerous murders of women. In addition to this we heard that alcohol sales are banned again, but despite this, alcohol adverts are still being shown on SABC TV, alcohol flows freely in numerous soapies on SABC, and violence against women is shown in a lot of them!
SABC being government owned, it does not make sense to me. Government bans the sale of alcohol, but on the other hand, allows it to flow on TV in soapies! This is nothing but double standards!
President Ramaphosa and Minister Dlamini-Zuma, including the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) should turn their focus and look much deeper what other platform is GBV coming from, and also look at which communal [platform] is promoting this. I urge Captain Solomon Sibiya who is the spokesperson of Kagiso Police to wake up and smell the coffee!
One does not need to look far, in fact the communal [platform] is right before their eyes, referring to our local SABC soapies, and movies shown, and I can also include eNCA TV in this. In most of these movies, including local soapies, you see guns being fired, bodies flying through the air, blood splashing all over, children traumatised, women threatened by husbands and boyfriends holding guns to their heads, etc; so what does society expect when we are entertained 24/ 7 with violence?
In nearly 90 per cent of programmes airing on local TV, which include local soapies, alcohol is used in abundance and given the ‘thumbs up’ mostly amongst the younger generation from start to finish of the soapie, thus resulting in drunkenness, brawls, violence, blood gushing, and beatings, and then in some, ultimately the death of the girlfriend, or wife.
In one particular soapie endorsed as ‘family viewing time’ early evening, alcohol flows from start to finish during the half-hour and shows younger people intoxicated, plastered and drunk, including GBV! This particular soapie has been reported to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) on numerous occasions for violent scenes, including suicide, drunken brawls, and alcohol abuse, all among the younger actors in the show. All the producer gets is a small fine.
Both GBV and alcohol abuse are promoted, endorsed, and supported by none other than government themselves – SABC, being government owned! They’re nothing but a bunch of hypocrites!I urge President Ramaphosa and others in his cabinet to look further than just banning the sale of alcohol at retailers and restaurants, while alcohol is openly permitted and allowed to flow from start to finish in our local soapies on SABC. You cannot ban one while allowing the other! – duh!
It’s like going on a diet with diet pills in one hand and chocolates in the other!
