GBV was an SA pandemic long before Covid, and the virus is not helping

When Police Minister Bheki Cele announced that the first week of the 21-day lockdown saw almost 90,000 women lodging gender-based violence (GBV) complaints, it was a grim reminder that South Africa faces another pandemic in addition to coronavirus.

The lockdown should allow us to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission, spend time at home with close ones and reconnect.

But some among us use it to do what they do best: abuse their partners or inflict violence on women.

In the first week of lockdown, there were 87,000 complaints of GBV – that’s more than 12,000 reported cases every single day.

After University of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana was raped and killed in August last year, we saw angry marches; we heard earnest declarations. We hoped against hope that the message against gender-based violence had finally sunk in.

This scourge received widespread, international attention.

But it appears our hopes were misplaced.

GBV is a profound malady that affects many women and girls in South Africa. Studies have found that between 25% and 40% of women in this country have experienced sexual or physical violence in their lifetime.

A study discovered that, in Gauteng, one in 13 women had reported non-partner rape. Between 28% and 37% of men admit having raped a woman.

Between 2009 and 2019, police logged 443,389 rape cases. While perpetrators of gender-based violence derive a perverse sense of superiority, this is a major human rights violation, which has a major impact on survivors.

While the root cause of GBV is the unequal power dynamics between men and women, patriarchy – a social system that treats men as superior to women – is grist to the mill.

While we battle the coronavirus, let’s not forget the second pandemic that looms equally large.

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