How Ramaphosa should handle SA’s other crisis

“At a time when the pandemic has left us all feeling vulnerable and uncertain, violence is being unleashed on women and children with a brutality that defies comprehension.”

These are the words of President Cyril Ramaphosa when he said he is “appalled” by the “second pandemic raging in the country” which is perpetrated by men. These words ring true, right?

The president sounds like he has his finger on the pulse on gender-based violence and is saying all the things the country wants to hear, but the truth of the matter is these are just words which he has uttered before. These words ring hollow to millions of women and children who live life wondering “am I next?”

Is the president playing politics? Is he being disingenuous in the way he is dealing with this “second pandemic”?

The answer lies in the actions that accompany his words. When Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, Ramaphosa’s government responded appropriately to the declaration by declaring a state of national disaster.

The life of every South African was brought to a halt by the response to the pandemic. Freedom of movement was taken away, economic rights were taken away and new laws immediately implemented to deal with the pandemic.

Why, then, has the president waxed lyrical about another pandemic against women but his response is not accompanied by equally far-reaching measures in response to that pandemic? The answer lies in whether he in fact believes gender-based violence is a pandemic.

South Africa has unfortunately got used to the way things play out: a gruesome murder is committed against a woman, her name trends on social media under the hashtag #JusticeForHer, the president is “horrified, shocked and appalled”.

Sometimes a perpetrator is arrested. Then the storm dies down. The truth is the current response is not working. SA needs new methods of responding to this scourge. The president must stop being part of this charade and lead the country in a new totally different strategy, with the sole aim of producing new men – men who do not prey on women.

What if the president did in fact declare GBV a national state of disaster and he announced a national command council that reported daily on the previous day’s statistics? What if that command council was backed up by laws that treated violence against women and children with the urgency it deserves?

Imagine waking up to a country where the laws are such that boys bullying girls at school is treated so seriously that parents are immediately called in and interventions put in place.

Parents would immediately start raising boys to know that targeting the vulnerable is a shameful act. And men would start policing themselves without having to wait for the president to tell them how “horrific and shocking” violence against women and children is.

As a social media acquaintance put it recently: “Think of a society where as a man you are not allowed into any space because you have abused a woman. A society where a man who lays a hand on a woman is fired from work immediately. His friends shun him. His own extended family wants nothing to do with him.”

Sounds extreme? That’s how a pandemic is dealt with, using extreme measures. Until the president can lead society in using extreme measures and not just words to deal with this scourge, SA will not breed new men.

Sydney Majoko.

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