This is shaping up to be one of the worst Women’s Months ever. It’s desperately ironic that the one time of the year we set aside to remember the courage of the 20 000 women who marched to the Union Buildings to tell apartheid prime minister JG Strijdom “wathint bafazi, wathint’ mbokodo (you strike a woman, you strike a rock)”so many are finding themselves struck.
In a country with a constitution that guarantees human rights in which gender equality is key, the lived reality is often very different from the letter of the law. We should have been celebrating women’s equality in society, women’s triumphs, instead we’ve been bemoaning violence meted out to women.
There’s been the usual litany of domestic violence, always appalling because of its very nature: perpetrators who are known to the victims with the violence often occurring behind closed doors where no one can help and there’s nowhere to run.
This year though, there’s been an added twist with the charging of Deputy Higher Education Minister Mduduzi Manana with the assault of a woman at a Johannesburg night club two weekends ago, days before we celebrated Women’s Day, the 61st anniversary of the eponymous march to Pretoria.
All of which almost faded into insignificance with the news that Grace Mugabe, the first lady of Zimbabwe, had been accused of brutally beating up a Joburg model with an extension cord. There was the usual scurry this week of fake news competing with real news, as she was first reported to have fled South Africa, but then reported to have remained. It now appears as if there has been intense behind the scenes lobbying for her to be granted diplomatic immunity and escape any possible legal censure.
This is one issue, the other though is just as damning - the emergence of famed state prosecutor turned private prosecutor Gerrie Nel announcing on behalf of his paymasters Afriforum that if the National Prosecuting Authority failed to prosecute Mugabe, he would step in and do so. Part of this, presumably, would be to prevent Mugabe being granted diplomatic immunity for the crime she is accused of.
While many will welcome Nel’s civic mindedness - we are sure the family of the victim will - it is difficult not to feel a sense of deep unease about the timing and indeed the clashing of different loyalties here.
Nel represents a predominantly white minority human rights organisation, many of whom are farmers. Mugabe represents the face of one of the most profound African land restitution programmes. It is one that has been deeply controversial and highly publicised because many of those thrown off their farms have been white. In this light, it is difficult to ascertain whether Nel and his employers are determined to get justice for Gabriella Engels or use this as a golden opportunity to score a rare victory over a person who would otherwise have been untouchable.
In the spirit of Women’s Month, we hope it is the former, but then the question is why the same help wasn’t offered to Manana’s alleged victim? We cannot afford more double standards or expediency in our country, we have enough already.