As the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign gets ready to launch across the country, the Saartjie Baartman Centre says violence against women and children remains unacceptably high.
“South Africa has some of the toughest laws on domestic abuse in the world. However, it is a country marred by high levels of violence against women and children,” director Shaheema McLeod said. “Only 3 percent of domestic violence perpetrators are convicted; there is something very wrong with that picture.”
Established 16 years ago, the centre has assisted more than 179 000 victims of crime and violence. Over the past few years they have seen a 65 percent increase in the number of women and children seeking assistance at their emergency shelter in Manenberg.
“There are far too many Jasmin Pretorius’s and Josina Machel’s out there,” McLeod said. “Campaigns such as the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children may create awareness around abuse. However, to really see a difference we need to change our behaviour and the belief systems that are so deeply rooted in our country.”
A study conducted by Gender Links showed that one in four women in the general SApopulation has experienced physical violence at some point in her life. Gender-based violence involves physical and psychological harm, humiliation, mental or sexual harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion and other arbitrary deprivations of liberty.
Violence against women and children cuts across all socio-economic and demographic classes. “Every woman and child is at risk,” says McLeod. “What is the purpose of the 16 Days of No Violence campaign when a woman is raped every 17 seconds in South Africa, when 40 percent of South African men admit to hitting their partner, when child abuse reports come in daily?”
A recent article written by Susan Goldstein, a senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, estimated that violence against women costs SA at least R28.4 billion each year. This figure includes health, justice and other service costs as well as lost earnings, revenue and taxes. There are also second-generation costs; children witness and live with violence and this results in increased juvenile and adult crime.“There should be zero tolerance towards violence, no matter what day of the year it is. Education starts with our children. Unfortunately all too often victims of abuse become the abusers – this is the cycle we have to break, only then will we see campaigns such as the 16 Days of No Violence initiative having a real impact,” McLeod said.
Situated on the Cape Flats, an area with one of the highest crime and unemployment rates in Cape Town, the centre offers crisis response, counselling, job skills training and legal advice to women and children who have become victims of abuse. Their on-site emergency shelter houses an average of 100 women and children at a time.
l This opinion piece was distributed on behalf of the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children by Be-cause Integrated Communications