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CRIME
GBV incidents escalate RACINE EDWARDES RACINE.EDWARDES@MEDIA24.COM @RAEEDWARDES
“W
e are in a lockdown where we are slaughtered daily.” The words of Lucinda Evans, a vocal activist for human rights and genderbased violence (GBV), rang in the ears of more than 1 300 Facebook users who viewed her live stream on Tuesday 16 June. This came after she voiced her opinion on the lifting of the ban on alcohol sales when South Africa moved to alert level three of the national lockdown on Monday 1 June. “Mr President, when you spoke about the unbanning of alcohol, did you consult the NGOs that are picking up the broken pieces of family lives? Did you consult any of the women who are currently in shelters, who are in shelters because of alcohol, because of violence, because they couldn’t stay in their own homes?” asked Evans, the founder of a women’s rights organisation in Lavender Hill, in a video posted before the lifting of the ban. The activist’s worst fears were confirmed when president Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation on Wednesday 17 June: “Over the past few weeks, no fewer than 21 women and children have been murdered. Their killers thought they could silence them,” he said. One of the most recent cases was that of Altecia Kortje and her daughter Raynecia (7), who were stabbed to death in Belhar on Friday 12 June. It was reported by News24 that Kortje was attempting to take out a restraining order against the accused just a week before she was killed, but was unsuccessful. Just last week in Ocean View, police confirmed another case of GBV where a woman was stabbed by a man who is alleged to be her ex-boyfriend. “On the evening of Thursday 18 June, at about 19:00, police attended to a call of domestic violence. Upon arrival, it was alleged that the suspect stabbed the victim in her stomach. The victim was immediately transported to a nearby hospital and her condition was very critical. The suspect ran away and no one knows his whereabouts. The motive behind the incident is unknown at this stage,” says Sgt Leon Fortuin, the spokesperson for
Last year’s high rate of GBV incidents sparked nationwide outrage and masses stood together to protest the scourge. PHOTO: RACINE EDWARDES
Ocean View police. Kerryn Rehse, advocacy, policy and research officer at Mosaic centre, says the project is outraged by the surge in GBV. The Wynberg-based centre assists to combat abuse and GBV. During level five and four of the lockdown, they tried to make its services available to women and children in need. It recently reinstated all of its services. “To expand access for women, what we have also done is partner with a selection of police stations where we have linked our workers to the domestic violence coordinator, so that victims can be directed straight to us,” Rehse says. The stance the organisation is taking on the relationship between GBV and alcohol is that it’s a broader societal problem that
needs to be addressed. “Mosaic is outraged at the continued scourge of violence against women and children in South Africa. We are especially concerned about the increased cases of femicide of women who have been failed by the criminal justice system,” she says, adding that there was an increase in the report of domestic violence, intimate partner violence and violence against children cases since the easing of restrictions on the sale of alcohol. “At the same time, we have seen the easing of restrictions of movement, the removal of curfew, and the exiting of law enforcement personnel from communities,” she says. The organisation believes the consumption of alcohol is contributing to the problem. The organisation says alcohol removes inhi-
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bitions and contributes to behaviour that may otherwise not have occurred, such as physical violence. “But, to say that alcohol consumption is the cause of intimate partner violence removes responsibility from the person who perpetrates such violence. The removal of alcohol merely treats a symptom and not the source of the violence. “There is no denying that the culture of alcohol consumption presents broad-reaching socio-economic consequences for our country. We must start to unpack why we have the alcohol consumption culture that we do in South Africa and what is needed to change this,” Rehse concludes. V Contact Ocean View police on 021 783 8308, Mosaic on 021 761 7585 or Philisa Abafazi Bethu on admin@philisaabafazi.org.
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