Why are women still unsafe in South Africa?

DW (English)

South Africa declared gender-based violence a national disaster in the runup to this year's worldwide 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (GBV). The president made the announcement as women around the country staged a shutdown to demand a solution. Why is GBV still so prevalent in a country where it's illegal?

Transcript

00:00The world is now marking 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.

00:05The UN-backed campaign aims to dismantle the cultural and structural barriers that keep women unsafe.

00:12As world leaders began pouring into South Africa for the G20 on November 21,

00:17South African women staged a nationwide shutdown to demand urgent action to stop the violence that they face.

00:25And their campaign paid off.

00:27On the very same day, the government declared gender-based violence and femicide a national disaster.

00:33When we did our shutdown, we saw such an international reaction and support and solidarity

00:39because gender-based violence is a national and global issue.

00:43So I think what we would hope is that citizens from other countries can also see the power of their unified voices

00:49and coming together and speaking out against these issues.

00:52But why are so many women and girls so persistently falling victim to violence?

00:58I've seen a lot of women stay in abusive relationships because they are from poor backgrounds.

01:04There is no traditional culture which allows abuse.

01:09It's only us misusing tradition and culture.

01:12Welcome to the flip side.

01:16Fifteen women are killed in South Africa every day and that's a femicide rate five times the global average.

01:24Gender-based violence is outlawed, but harmful social norms persist.

01:28I blame society because at the end of the day, these men, when they meet and talk,

01:36they're speaking wrong messages to each other, especially if they're going through problems.

01:42They're speaking wrong messages that they must be dominant or something like that.

01:47So what goes on in the minds of the men and women caught up in cycles of violence?

01:52In some cultures, you know, women do normalize violence as love.

01:59I mean, cultural socialization and patriarchy contributes to that type of behavior.

02:05You know, it is a harmful norm, you know, because it teaches them that, you know,

02:11endurance in relationship, for example, is a sign of loyalty.

02:16And what can families or communities do to change this?

02:19We need a society to start teaching healthy relationships early.

02:24I mean, families should model respect.

02:27I mean, that is the most critical element of African people, you know,

02:32and also emotional expression for both boys and girls.

02:37But also we have to look at community accountability systems.

02:41And here we are talking about faith leaders.

02:43They need to play their role, you know, schools, local governments in our countries.

02:50And also our policing system needs to be very, you know, very sensitive around these matters

02:55when these matters are brought to the police stations as well.

03:00But lastly, I think the other aspect is to empower economic support,

03:06particularly on a girl child.

03:08And is it true that the government is failing women and girls?

03:12We acknowledge that more is required to be done,

03:16particularly on the issue of capacity building for service desk points,

03:23wherein human beings like you and I, whether men or women,

03:27require that kind of capacity building in order to understand

03:31the conditions that the victims of gender-based violence are subjected to.

03:36We want to integrate the victims to the communities that they come from,

03:42but also the households that they come from.

03:45So now that GBV is a national disaster,

03:48how do activists see the way forward to a society

03:51where a South African woman can live without the fear of violence?

03:55What we're hoping to see more tangibly is we want to see a clear action plan.

04:00We want to see improvement and implementation of the frameworks and policies.

04:04We want improvement of service delivery and law enforcement.

04:07We want to see our teachers like care centers improving,

04:10which are just facilities that offer holistic support to victims and survivors.

04:14We really want to see the action behind all this work

04:18because we've been given so many high-level promises like it's enough.

04:22We now want to see them back.

04:23And that's the flip side.

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