‘Not every fight is GBV’

Activists have warned about the dangers of branding every altercation as gender-based violence as it emerged that the woman caught on a video being attacked by a teacher, the father of her child, brought her sister and
friends to attack him in his house.

In the video, Thomas Jabu Manana, a maths teacher and choir conductor at Silamba Secondary School in KwaMhlanga, Mpumalanga, can be seen attacking a woman lying on the ground with a wooden pole as she tried to block the blows with her hands.

The teacher, who has since been released on bail, is then seen kicking the woman in the face after the pole was taken away from him by another woman trying to stop him from the continued
attack.

According to a neighbour, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, about 10 women arrived in at least three cars on Thursday as a heated argument between Manana, 34, and the 24-year-old mother of his child ensued.

“The other women were also screaming and insulting him in front of his children and wife… It is a pity the video only showed the part where he is assaulting the woman. What he did is wrong, but also no one will allow to be insulted in their own home. Maybe he should have called the police,” the neighbour said.

Not In My Name, a civil rights and gender-based violence activist organisation, welcomed the arrest of the teacher for his actions but warned against branding every incident involving women as gender-based violence. The organisation’s general-secretary, Themba Masango, said every case should be treated based on its individual merits as branding every violence involving a man and woman as gender-based regressed the genuine struggle against the scourge of
gender-based violence and violence against children.

“We are facing a serious challenge of violence against women and children in this country – but also we need to face the fact that people will use this focus on GBV for their own personal motives.

“Attacking a woman or child or anyone for that matter, can never be justified. The law must take its course so we could get to the bottom of what happened in this case,” he said.

Masango warned that it would be naïve to accept the branding of every disagreement or fight as GBV, warning that a lot of people perished during the struggle against apartheid simply because they were branded as informers.

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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