Break the stigma - men can be victims of gender-based violence too, a police officer said during a webinar session marking the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign.
Men, however, in some cases have to be assaulted so badly that they end up in hospital where they need to account for their injuries before they will admit that they are victims of gender-based violence.
This is according to Captain Johan van Dyk, spokesperson for the SAPS in Tshwane, who spoke during a Motor Industry Staff Association (MISA) webinar session this week.
He said that the stigma men face in society about being victims of gender-based violence is so severe that he could not find any statistics for the last six months as he did his preparation.
He found that men acted more preventatively.
There were more than 300 cases where men voluntarily submitted their firearms to the police for safekeeping at Tshwane’s 36 police stations.
MISA, representing more than 69,000 members in the retail motor industry, is hosting a webinar series on gender-based violence topics as part of the union’s annual 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence and Femicide campaign.
The union’s theme this year is gender-based violence ends with us. To illustrate this, MISA is screening the blockbuster movie It Ends with Us nationwide to selected audiences.
Van Dyk said that although he does not take away from the severity of gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa towards women and children, awareness must also be raised to the fact that men too can be victims.
“Women can be abusers too, including physical, verbal, emotional or financial abuse. Neither the Constitution, Harassment Act nor the Domestic Violence Act refers to the sex of the abuser.”
He added that the reality is that if a man needs to take refuge at a safe house for himself and his children, there is none available to him.
“The system doesn’t cater for a father that might need to flee his home with his children in the middle of the night.” Van Dyk recalled that he had to intervene in a case once where police officers laughed at a man who wanted to open a case because his wife slapped him.
“It is already a big embarrassment for a man to come forward. The female abuser often gets an interim protection order against the man. The fact that he is the one being abused will only come to the attention of the court once he is forced to play voice recordings and videos of the threatening behaviour of the abusive wife.”
Van Dyk said that is why the police are trained to treat both parties impartially and without any bias.
His plea is for more awareness campaigns and support groups for men.
The organisation Khulisa Social Solutions, which has been delivering peace-building, community-led mediation and social cohesion interventions to vulnerable communities in South Africa for more than 25 years, earlier said male victims of GBV often feel isolated and too ashamed to speak up about their trauma and experiences.
Data and insights gathered by the organisation have painted an urgent picture indicating that while GBV disproportionately affects women, it is crucial to acknowledge that men can also be victims.
Khulisa’s Sophiatown victim empowerment centre has played a major role in supporting male victims who have experienced domestic violence, child neglect, abuse from partners and where substance abuse affects their household.
“Understanding South Africa’s history and the context of GBV, it is evident that women are the most vulnerable group. We also need to understand that men can be victims of GBV as well, especially boys in their adolescent years,” Africa Monyai, a criminology researcher and programme officer at Khulisa, said.
Monyai said the issue was not addressed enough in South Africa.
Pretoria News