SA men asked to take a stand and join the fight against GBVF

Women’s Month is traditionally a time when we pay tribute to the more than 20 000 brave women who marched to the Union Buildings on August 9, 1956 in protest against the extension of Pass Laws to women.

In the years since then, this commemorative day has evolved. In addition to maintaining the spirit of what Women’s Month first represented, we have also seen women from all walks of life being celebrated for a range of achievements – in the workplace, in the home and in other parts of society.

When Covid-19 hit our shores and we entered into two years of lockdown, the focus on women shifted again. This time, to conversations around the ‘second pandemic’ of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF).

As we commemorate Women’s Month again this year, we need to turn our attention to the perpetrators of this stain on our society and encourage each other to play our parts in ending GBVF in our lifetimes,” said CEO of the GBVF Response Fund Lindi Dlamini.

What SA may not know, and is urged to pause and consider, is that:

• Every three hours a man kills a woman in South Africa
• Every eight hours a man kills his intimate partner
• Today, one in three men reading this will rape a woman
• Men raped 11 315 women in the last three months of last year
• SA has the highest rape rate in the world

“Being on the sidelines is being an enabler of GBVF.

We ask the men of South Africa not to be that guy – to take a stand, rise up to change and join the fight against GBVF,” concluded Dlamini.