There is huge hype about gender-based violence, violence against women and children, violence against Lesbian, Gay, bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) people.
The hype about violence has been going on for years. It is the hot cake for the media, for policy makers, for donors. But who responds, what change has it brought to women and men, to children, to families, to society?
It’s evident that women and children are still abused, raped, and brutally murdered by their partners, by the known and unknown men in their communities.
There has been a rise of activists and civil society coalitions calling on the South African Government to do better, to act against gender based violence and to ensure that communities throughout are safe. Since the launch of the National Council against Gender Based Violence, this seemed to be a platform for transformation for the nation, with hope and wishes for mechanism to address violence in the country in a multi-sectoral way.
However, it seems like the then tasked Department of Women, Children, and People with Disabilities (now changed to yje Department of Women) has now neglected and dumped the Council, focusing instead on economic empowerment. But for whom?
A number of prominent voices have begun to argue that it is time for accountability, it is time for an inclusive and holistic approach. They call on Government to develop the National Strategic Plan on Gender Based Violence. They say Government should move away from this 16 Days of Activism. Women’s lives are at stake. What happened to preventing violence, what happened to communities that matter, what informs the Government’s agenda now?
If Government does not listen to its people, why do we have government then, why do we have communities then? If we do not prevent violence, if we do not address inequalities, if we do not address the root causes, does this woman matter?
Women matter. Of course they do! if this change does not happen in communities, and does not change women’s lives in Lusisiki (Eastern Cape), in Phokeng (North West), in Nelspruit (Mpumalanga), in Atteridgeville (Gauteng), and in Khayelitsha (Western Cape), amongst others areas, then there has not been any change at all. Who is supposed to create that change? Who should educate communities, who is supposed to execute the rights as enshrined in the Constitution, who is supposed to provide justice? When will women be a priority? When will the environment be enabled? How will this environment be enabled when there is no plan at hand? Do women matter?
Yet, we are painfully aware that the context in programming is weak, the execution of justice fails women, there are no prevention programmes, and there is no change - besides losing women: our daughters, our mothers, our sisters and our partners.
These women matter and communities will rise! We will rise, like Charlotte Maxeke rose and became the first Black South African to receive a bachelor’s degree. Alongside other women, she led a women's protest march that resisted Government attempts to impose passes on women. We will rise like Sita Gandhi and her parents who staged a sit at a “whites only” reading room in 1951. We will rise like Nyembe, Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Annie Silinga, Francis Baard and Florence Matomela - amongst other great women leaders.
Women will rise to resist a Government that does not care for their livelihood. The struggle for rights continues in this country. The constitution that is meant to protect, promote, fulfil the rights of all people in diversity seems to be the Constitution for the few, people with money, people that are the elite. This is a sad reality. It is a call for us to rise and prioritise the lives of women in their diversity.
It is time to ensure that these lives matters. It is unacceptable to have this high level of violence while we keep quiet. For some of us, we will continue fighting, we will die trying.
Let us rise and continue to fight the struggles that are interlinked, interconnected. Let us rise against gender based-violence, racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and xenophobia.
End violence because women matter, communities matter, justice matters, and human rights matter!
Mmapaseka Steve Letsike is Director of Access Chapter 2