SA needs a new effective plan in the fight against racism and GBV

Eastern Cape OR Tambo municipality employee Singwa Namhla Mtwa’s gruesome shooting has made gender-based violence (GBV) the country’s number one topic of conversation.

Regrettably, her name will evoke angry and heated discussions only for a short while. Until another woman is gruesomely murdered.

And the pattern will repeat itself. Just in the same way that the allegedly racist incident of Theuns du Toit urinating on the property of Babao Ndwayana will be in the news until another racism incident occurs.

The two incidents are not linked or equal in significance but they both highlight this country’s ineffectiveness at dealing with its biggest historical problems.

Albert Einstein said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Racist incidents are not new and they will not disappear after Du Toit has apologised and been dealt with.

There is guaranteed to be another – and the same people who are outraged now will be outraged again and, temporarily, life will be interrupted to show that most South Africans are disgusted by the indignity that they live with people who believe it is okay to urinate on the personal effects of another.

And then life goes on. It is the same with GBV.

The shock and horror of the injuries to the victim, the gruesomeness of the assault or murder and the strident calls from everyone in society will be in full display after Namhla Mtwa’s name has become just another name on the list of women who have suffered brutal abuse at the hands of men.

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And all this will be recorded digitally and shared widely. And big politicians will promise to “act swiftly to bring the perpetrators to book”.

But the truth remains that there are hundreds of thousands of Namhlas out there right now, cowed into silent suffering by the knowledge that the society that should protect them will probably let them down if they came out.

Does this mean these ugly twins of racism and GBV must continue unabated?

That the country must just throw up its hands and go on with life as it is? No, all it means is a different approach is required to produce different outcomes.

Racism and GBV thrive in the shadows; in the silence of the shame that the victims are made to feel.

These ugly twins, at their core, say to the victims “you are not worthy of being a human being and as such, are at the mercy of someone more human than you, much stronger than you, and your dignity is determined by that person”.

When society realises that the stripping away of a person’s dignity is right up there with the most serious crimes, then the crimes of racism and GBV will receive the attention they deserve.

Research has shown that perpetrators of crime are not only deterred by societal naming and shaming, but also by swift punishment.

In the inefficient systems of the National Prosecuting Authority, specialised courts should be established to deal with GBV and racism.

If it means that the only efficient structures within the NPA must be these courts, then so be it.

Otherwise the alternative will be that 30 years from now, another Theuns du Toit will be caught on video doing the same thing. Another Namhla will be added to the list of GBV victims.

Hate cannot be legislated away, laws will not make people love each other, but human dignity can be protected through laws.