IT WAS probably one of the best public advertisement campaigns yet. It ran on Friday in our sister newspapers – a full-page advertisement of a woman’s bruised face.
The text was very simple: “Black Friday doesn't come once a year.” Of course it doesn't. Violence against women and children is a scourge in this country, a national disgrace. Today marks the first day of the annual 16 Days of No Violence Against Women and Children campaign.
Despite the progressive laws that we have, successfully prosecuting someone for beating up their wife or lover, and especially where the assault is sexual, is both hard and traumatic. Many victims don’t live to get to report the crimes that have been visited upon them.
Jayde Panayiotou was one. Reeva Steenkamp was another. Yesterday, the Eastern Cape High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal sent out an unequivocal message that violence against women would not be tolerated. Jayde’s killer, her husband Christopher, was jailed for life, along with the men he hired to slay her, by the court in Port Elizabeth, while in Bloemfontein Pistorius’s jail term was doubled.
It is one of the rare bouquets for a beleaguered National Prosecuting Authority that its prosecutors fought steadfastly to overturn the original miscarriage of justice which saw the disgraced Paralympian originally convicted of the lesser culpable homicide, with a risible sentence for shooting his erstwhile girlfriend through a bathroom door.
Friday’s judgments bring a little light to not just Black Friday, but other days which are just bleak for women and children in this country. One real solution is for all of you to join our pledge: “Don’t look away,” not now, not for the next two-and-a-half weeks, not ever.
Let’s stamp out this scourge once and for all.