‘Teach boys and men’: Castration won’t assist in dealing with GBV – activist

ANC social transformation committee chairperson Lindiwe Sisulu – who proposed that rapists be chemically castrated – seemingly agrees with experts on gender-based violence (GBV) that education, and not castration is the best way to change the attitude of men.

However, Sisulu may have missed the mark yet again when she proposed introducing a “special school curriculum which would teach boys how to respect women”.

Speaking at the sixth national policy conference in Nasrec, Sisulu said the ANC was concerned about GBV and proposed boys should be taught in school not to rape or sexually assault women.

ALSO READ: No point in chemical castration if violent patriarchy is not addressed

However, activist and researcher Lisa Vetten said SA already had a subject which essentially is the study of the self in relation to others and to society, “within life orientation, it has tried to look at gender relations”.

She said: “I’m not sure what she’s thinking about. We must be very careful of how you do education work with boys and men because somehow you need to strike a fine balance around how do we renegotiate the way gender relations in South Africa.

“We need to make more equitable, which clearly shows how systems of masculine domination have privileged boys and men, but also be careful not to make a lapse into saying they are the problem.”

Vetten said while it was important to address damaging stereotypes of traditional masculinity contributing to GBV, people should be careful not to make a repeat of “scared straight programmes” where boys were taken to prison to scare them out of committing crime.

“These programmes actually make boys worse, because the message to them is; you are a bad person and you will end up this way.

READ MORE: Nkoana-Mashabane decries ‘barbaric’ violence that SA’s women and children face

“It doesn’t in any way suggest to them – you have the capacity to be a good decision maker to make decisions which are in your best interest in those of other people.

“You’ve got be very careful you don’t create programmes which softly assume that boys – because they are boys – are a problem because they become self-fulfilling prophecies.”

However, Sisulu said SA was the only country where violence against women was increasing, and the ANC would like put an end to it.

“In other parts of the world, women are respected because they reproduce the species.” Sisulu said the ANC proposed no bail or parole for GBV perpetrators.

“They shouldn’t be integrated back into society. There are a number of ways the women in the meeting had expressed how we should deal with this matter, and they’re suggesting that for anybody who’s found to be guilty of GBV no parole should be considered whatsoever,” she said.

ALSO READ: Sisulu’s castration call ill-informed grandstanding for ANC presidency

“So, we would allow the normal judicial processes to go through, then when we discover that in fact there was a rape and the verdict is a guilty verdict.

“Only then we would propose that there should be chemical castration of that particular person, so that this does not happen again.”

However, Women and Men Against Child Abuse spokesperson Ngaa Murombedzi previously told The Citizen this would not assist in dealing with GBV.