Stop GBV with harsh punishment

It’s even worse than many of us thought. That’s the only possible reaction to the news that one in every three adult women in South Africa will have experienced physical violence in their lifetime.

One in 10 women will have experienced sexual violence, according to the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) which released the findings of the first South African national gender-based violence (GBV) study yesterday.

That means 7.3 million women have been physically abused in their lives, with 2.1 million having been sexually assaulted.

The HSRC’s Dr Nompumelelo Zungu highlighted that this is the first national-level study dedicated to GBV, conducted as a population survey.

She noted that while South Africa has policies addressing GBV, progress is hindered by implementation, funding and other challenges.

That, we’re afraid, is a euphemism and ignores the awful, brutal elephant in the room – the appalling attitudes and behaviour of South African men.

The study highlighted this with its figures on what it called “controlling behaviour”, which indicated that 57.6% of women experienced this in their lifetime.

ALSO READ: GBV ‘alive and eating at SA’ — activist

Alarmingly, 77.2% of men admitted perpetrating this over their lifetime. Gender activists will tell you that, horrific as these figures are, they are probably lower than they are in reality, because of the problem of under-reporting of these crimes, not only to law enforcement, but even to researchers.

And yet, every year, we have this same conservation, around the launch of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign.

And, it never seems to get any better. As early as possible, in our schools, we must sensitise boys to find violence against women and girls to be repugnant.

Then we must shame those men who joke about it. Punishments must be harsher, too. We cannot be known as a nation which tolerates such abuse.