It is very sad and shocking that despite campaigns and slogans, gender-based violence (GBV) continues.
At the weekend, pictures of Lesedi FM presenter Dimakatso Ratselane showing injuries meted out by someone allegedly close to her were circulating on social media.
Eight years ago, model Reeva Steenkamp was shot and killed by her lover, Oscar Pistorius. There are many Reevas and Dimakatsos out there, but what we should be doing is eradicating GBV.
Every year, we hold campaigns but they seem to be just ineffective talk shops. Early this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the GBV and femicide fund and urged all sectors to help fight the scourge, as “gender-based violence is not a women’s issue, but a human rights issue”.
Several local companies and global philanthropists made pledges of about R128 million.
During his State of the Nation Address, Ramaphosa said GBV will only end when everyone takes responsibility for doing so in their homes.
Last week, a study by human rights group Amnesty International revealed that “during the Covid-19 lockdown imposed by southern African countries, some homes across the region became enclaves of cruelty, rape and violence for women and girls trapped with abusive family members and with nowhere to report or escape the danger”. And South Africa was one of the countries where this study was documented.
In South Africa, within the first week of the March lockdown last year, the police reported 2 300 calls for help related to GBV. By mid-June, 21 women and children had been killed by intimate partners, the study found.
Just last week, Lungile Nxelelwa was given a double life sentence for raping and killing Keneilwe Pule before setting her body on fire in 2019.
In Mpumalanga, a man convicted of killing his former girlfriend and mother of his four children was handed a life imprisonment term.
In KwaZulu-Natal, a man was jailed for life for kidnapping and raping a woman he was infatuated with in Verulam. Let us hope that these heavy sentences will serve as a deterrent.
We truly have a long way to go, not only in South Africa, but globally, in defeating this scourge.
The Star