The Tears Foundation commemorated the launch of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children which began on 25 November at The Forum in Bryanston. The foundation is well known for its fight against gender-based violence in collaboration with the Alexandra Police Station.
In attendance was South Africa Police Service’s head of social crime prevention Major General Thokozani Mathonsi who recommitted the department to assisting stakeholders and organisations where possible. Mathonsi added that the police service itself was also making a few changes to how it approaches the situation of gender-based violence. “As we are sitting here, we are part of some of the structures that are looking for long-term solutions in terms of gender-based violence. We as SAPS are crafting our own strategy to deal with this issue – we have currently developed different guidelines that ensure that our members understand how to deal with these issues,” he said.
“We have a responsibility to protect society and that is essentially what we are doing. I must acknowledge up front that there have been a few incidents where we have also felt ashamed at how the victims have been treated and we are always very sorry for those actions.
“There is a long chain of assistance but we as SAPS are in the front line, we are the first people they [victims] come to.”
The foundation also honoured four young learners – Ethan Ramsanu, David Ingram, Andrew Kehlert and Jayden Steven – who have contributed to making a difference in the fight against gender-based violence. “We need to train our boys and girls to be part of the fight against gender-based violence,” said the foundation’s founder Mara Glennie.
The four boys raised a substantial amount of money for the foundation in addition to creating and packing comfort packs for victims of gender-based violence. “We all try to do something to change the world. I think so much about gender-based violence and how men are described as bad guys, murders, rapists and one day I actually asked my mom ‘are all men bad’,” said Jayden.
The worldwide campaign was first launched in 1991 at the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute triggered by the Montreal massacre in Canada in 1989 where a group of female engineering students were shot.
According to Parliament, the objectives of the campaign are to:
- Attract all South Africans to be active participants in the fight to eradicate violence against women and children, hence the theme – count me in.
- Expand accountability beyond the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster to include all government clusters and provinces.
- Combine technology, social media, the arts, journalism, religion, culture and customs, business and activism to draw attention to the many ways violence against women and children affects the lives of all people in all communities around the world.
- Ensure mass mobilisation of all communities to promote collective responsibility in the fight to eradicate violence against women and children.
- Encourage society to acknowledge that violence against women and children is not a government or criminal justice system problem, but a societal problem, and that failure to view it as such results in all efforts failing to eradicate this scourge in our communities.
- Emphasise the fact that the solution lies with all of us.
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