By Ofentse Morwane
Johannesburg - The country commemorated what is supposedly one of the significant calendar days in its history on Monday – Women’s Day.
It was a day where we saluted the gutsy efforts of about 20 000 women who defied the apartheid regime and marched to the Union Buildings in protest against the pass laws in 1956.
This was exactly 65 years ago. The government declared 2021 as the year of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke, a women’s rights activist who along with others courageous female political leaders fought for the liberation of the country.
The government’s women’s month programme calls for us to take a step back and reflect on the plight of women in modern South Africa. The democratic dispensation has sought to ensure equal rights and create economic opportunities that are aimed at empowering women.
President Cyril Ramaphosa correctly pointed out that although significant strides have been made, a lot more needs to be done to empower women.
“We want to live in a society where women feel and are safe. We want to live in a society where women are able to assume leadership positions in the workplace, in the community, in government and public institutions.”
Our government has done a lot to ensure representation of women in leadership positions. We can gleefully reflect on our efforts to ensure increased opportunities for women and girls in decision making across political and economic spheres.
However, it is the safety of women and girl children that should have us bothered. The level of violence has reached alarming proportions. It is unacceptable that we live in a society where women are regularly murdered, physically and sexually assaulted, threatened and humiliated by their partners and strangers alike.
These violent incidents have characterised our land in a way that is unfathomable. Men have declared war on women and children. The country has lately referred to this as the second pandemic. The statement released by the Gauteng Department of Education just a day after the Women’s Day celebrations left me downhearted.
A grade 1 learner was allegedly sexually assaulted by a general assistant at a school in Soshanguve, North of Pretoria. She had requested to use a bathroom during school hours when the incident occurred. Awful.
In another incident this week, a 50-year female correctional officer’s body was found dead at the Covid-19 isolation ward at Leeuwkop prison. The body was discovered on the floor with her jacket covered in blood.
These incidents have become part our daily life. These cases are widespread and under-reported. Violence against women and children takes physical, sexual, economic, and psychological forms.
As we celebrated Women Month, it is crucial that we reflect on our achievements as a county in relation to empowerment of women in the various sectors. Are the laws that we have sufficient to protect violence and lives of this vulnerable group? The country needs a fierce debate on this. We have become passive and reactive while this violence continues unabated. The alarming number of sexual offenders and men convicted attest to this.
The legal recourse is merely reactive to the damage that has already been done. It is significant to have a sustained long-term solution to this crisis we are facing as the country. We need a holistic multi-sectoral approach to give a fair assessment of how we have dealt with this crisis so far. A more stringent approach is needed to deter would-be perpetrators of violent acts against women and children. There have been too many violations of human dignity and human rights of our people.
Morwane writes in his personal capacity.