More than 830 women in Chatsworth have taken protection orders against their partners since the beginning of the year.
This is according to a local welfare organisation which has revealed serious cases of abuse, including women being chained to their beds and locked in their homes.
“The high number is evidence that domestic violence in Chatsworth is rife and steadily increasing,” said Logan Naidu, president of Chatsworth Child Welfare .
He said the organisation’s help desk statistics from the beginning of this year showed that 834 women in Chatsworth had taken protection orders against their partners.
“Many of these victims are women who lack financial independence and as a result are subjected to abuse from their partners. Children are also exposed to abuse and experience much emotional trauma and distress as a result of witnessing this abuse.”
He said that apart from physical, sexual and emotional abuse women also suffer economic abuse.
“Economic abuse includes spending the woman’s money, preventing her having a job, the man overspending most of the money on himself or only giving his partner a very small allowance and expecting an account of every cent spent,” he explained. “We have had severe cases where some women were even chained to their beds and locked in their homes. These women soon learn to obey rather than face the escalating violence that occurs should they fight back.”
Naidu said the surge of drug and alcohol abuse in the community was causing the abuse to escalate.
In Phoenix, domestic violence and sexual abuse against children is also on the increase. In the past four months alone the Phoenix Child Welfare Society’s shelter for the abused has been overcrowded with mothers, with their children in tow, seeking refuge from abusive partners.
“Abuse is on the rise and new victims come in daily. Among them are a high number of children who have been sexually abused, not by strangers but their own family members,” said the director of the Society, Aroona Chetty.
She explained that domestic violence was being fuelled by drugs, alcohol abuse and extra-martial affairs.
“When the husbands are addicted to drugs or alcohol they don’t go to work and are unable to provide for their families. The wives are then left with the duty of providing financially. The confrontation starts when the women are unable to do so and the husbands then lash out. When the husbands are intoxicated they lose all control or common sense.”
Chetty said leaving their husbands and coming to the shelter was a difficult decision for women to make. “For some they worry about what society or family may say, others hold on to hope that things will change and be better, while others are too scared and actually fear for their lives and those of their children.”
Apart from domestic abuse, she said in recent months the Society’s social workers had been called to primary schools to counsel pupils who had been touching each other in a sexual manner.
“The pupils were around 7 years old, and when interviewed about their behaviour the children told the social workers they were doing what their relatives did to them. In a separate incident, a woman had entrusted her father to look after her child only to later find out that the man had been sexually abusing the child,” she said.
Chetty said because abuse often involved a family member, many parents dealt with the issues on their own.
“Police are not taking these cases seriously and that is also a reason why people are not reporting these incidents. Society needs to take a stand and we need to teach our sons to treat women with dignity and respect. Parents need to be better role models for their children,” she said.
Although the annual campaign runs for 16 days, Mariatu Fonnah, a representative of the women’s rights group Genderlinks, said awareness around domestic violence and child abuse should be tackled throughout the year.
“In South Africa close to 70% of women and children have been abused. During the campaign there is hype around the country about protecting women and children, and this should not be the case.”
Fonnah said creating awareness should be worked on 365 days a year. “This should not be the responsibility of women and children’s rights groups but all organisations, communities and individuals. This is the only way we can make progress,” she said.