GENDER-BA SED V IOL ENCE ILITHA LABUNTA OFFERS HOPE AND HELP
TAKE A STAND, TAKE ACTION MANDISA MONAKALI, founder and president of Ilitha Labantu, shares what South African women and communities should be doing to join the fight against GBV
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hile South Africa’s democratic constitution is hailed as one of the world’s most progressive constitutions with laws and legislation that serve to protect the rights of women and children, it is perplexing that the country has a monstrous record of gross human rights violations against women, painting a grim picture of a society at war with its women. These atrocities occur despite South Africa’s “progressive” laws. Such acts of gender-based violence (GBV) are deeply rooted in South Africa’s colonial and apartheid pasty and the patriarchy, misogyny and toxic masculinity that permeates society irrespective of race, class, religion, culture, geography, or background.
WE NEED ACTION To fully realise women’s rights and resolve the challenges they face, we need a greater sense of unity and transformative measures that seek to address the structural causes of gender inequality at national, local and household levels. This requires more stringent measures to help curb the rate of violence against women, an improvement in the prosecution rate of Mandisa Monakali perpetrators of abuse
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and the enforcement of a more responsive social protection system, as well as access to long-term and sustainable economic opportunities for the empowerment of women. Robust action based on a proactive strategy must be taken by government in collaboration with the private sector to help restore the livelihoods lost during the COVID-19 pandemic and address GBV. The high incident rate of violence against women and children should be a wake-up call that the nation needs to apply more innovative strategies to help change the entrenched behaviour of men. There is a great need for a mass public awareness campaign to comprehensively engage and educate all sectors of society around GBV and its roots in gender inequalities. Through education, society can unlearn the negative gender stereotypes that contribute to the discrimination and abuse of women, children and vulnerable groups. Men also need to play a more active role in the fight against GBV. Women alone cannot win this fight, it requires men’s active engagement in dismantling the toxic patriarchal power structures that exist in all spheres of society. While not all men are perpetrators of violence, it is the silence of male bystanders that helps to
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normalise the abuse of women – men need to hold each other accountable for their actions. Far too often the support for the women’s movement has been reserved solely for Women’s Month or the annual 16 Days of No Violence against Women and Children campaign. However, the support for the plight of women should be all year round. Strategic sectors within our society need to pledge their commitment towards ending GBV and empowering women and girls throughout the year by providing women and girls with resources and services. South Africa’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic indicates that the nation can unite, even in its diversity, to make society a better place for all. Let us all come together and commit to a higher level of action to end gender-based violence – no one is exempt from taking action.
The high incident rate of violence against women and children should be a wake-up call that the nation needs to apply more innovative strategies to help change the entrenched behaviour of men.
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Ilitha Labantu
Ilitha Labantu is a nonprofit organisation providing free counselling services, legal support, training, education and empowerment programmes to women and children survivors of abuse in the townships and rural communities of the Western Cape region. Realising that domestic violence and abuse pose a significant threat to the development of women and children in townships, abuse survivor Mandisa Monakali established Ilitha Labantu in 1989. She says: “When I founded the organisation, it was the first of its kind to offer the specialised services in the black townships of the Western Cape. Women in the townships had little hope of leaving abusive situations due to the distant location of places where services and help are offered. This, together with a language barrier (most of the organisations in the more affluent communities spoke Afrikaans or English), and the need to pay for the services, deterred women.” Ilitha Labantu’s services are free and accessible to women, children and those affected by abuse.
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2021/07/29 3:16 PM
