‘GBV crisis overtaking other issues women face’

Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary caucus leader Siviwe Gwarube says the conversation about gender-based violence (GBV) should not only be on Women’s Day or South Africa’s 16 days of activism – it should be an ongoing conversation in society.

Gwarube was speaking on the sidelines of the DA’s commemoration of Women’s Day at the South Rand Recreational Centre in Welfare Park, Johannesburg.

She said part of the problem was that issues faced by women were only spoken about during those two events.

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“Women’s Day is not meant to be about GBV awareness, it is meant to be about a lot more than those things, we have had to talk about the issues of GBVF because of the crisis,” she said.

“If one looks at what the women of 1956 were marching for, some of those things are still relevant today. These are issues like equal pay, maternity leave rights, issues around maintenance, child-headed households and women-headed households that are not supported by the state.

“This is some of what we are meant to be talking about, but GBV is overtaking them because it’s a crisis. My view is that it is not that we talk about women on one day and the next day we move on.”

#NotInMyName co-founder Themba Masango said despite this being a day where women needed to be commemorated, the day continued to highlight the plight of women in the country and how far they had come in terms of equality, equity and justice.

Masango said despite the strides that have been made, the country was still dealing with the problem of GBV which continued to darken the cloud of celebration.

“We are known as the rape capital of the world, the abuse and femicide is almost 5.1% times higher than anywhere else in the world. We are considered a very violent nation when it comes to the fight between women and men. These are questions that need to be answered and tackled,” he said.

“This will need all hands to be on deck, government and NGOs, men and women – particularly men because in most cases they are the perpetrators.

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“Because GBV is a topical issue, there is a lot of disingenuousness about it where people use it for political point-scoring, they have weaponised GBV in the country and this shouldn’t be the case.”

He said society, including police and the courts, had a bigger role to play in ensuring that women were protected against abuse.

“We need to have accountability and responsibility throughout the value chain – from the point of educating the boy child to the second point of making sure that police do the right job,” added Masango.