‘Don’t be that guy and say no to GBV and Femicide’ GBVF Response Fund

South Africa marks exactly 66 years since more than 20 000 brave women marched to the Union Buildings, on August 9, 1956 in protest against the country’s pass laws which mandated that South Africans defined as black carry an internal passport, known as a pass.

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Now six decades later, taking a new page to maintain the spirit of what Women’s Month first represented, the Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Response Fund has planned to use the commemorative day to not only celebrate women from all walks of life but as an opportunity to push its massive campaign to get men talking and being part of the conversation.

Themed “Don’t be that guy – what you may not know about GBVF” the campaign not only seeks to empower women and turn patriarchy on its head but seeks to change the conversation to focus on men and how they can participate in making sure the war on femicide in the country is eliminated.

“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 lifetime,” says Lindi Dlamini, CEO of the GBVF Response Fund.

The GBVF Response Fund was launched by President Cyril Ramaphosa, in February 2021, to tackle the scourge of GBVF in South Africa.

The move followed roaring calls from civil society groups, faith based organisations and citizens for government to come up with a clear plan on addressing GBV in the country.

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According to research, women in particular at the height of Covid-19 lockdown faced an increase in domestic violence and GBV-related incidents in the country.

The Fund is an initiative aimed at supporting the implementation of the new National Strategic Plan on GBVF, by raising financial and non-financial resources, and allocating them to high-impact organisations working to tackle GBVF.

It also aims to ensure support and access to justice for victims. In addition, the Fund pursues impactful public-private partnerships to address GBVF.

“Being on the side-lines is being an enabler of GBVF.

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

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

• A man kills a woman every three hours 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.