By Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva
Even in these trying and crying times, when hope is waning, it was never anticipated that the closure of Mandela Month in 2022 would be on this excruciating note – the gang rape of eight women on a mine dump, reportedly on a film shoot in West Village, Krugersdorp on July 28.
The incident leaves a sour taste in the mouth when, in remembrance of August 9, 1956, voices should be raised in acknowledgement of the valiant struggles women have waged.
The brazen criminality and the violence that the young women – some of them teenagers – went through has traumatised the whole nation. Women in this country are slowly becoming numb to the cruelty we experience in our homes, in our communities and at our places of work. This is despite enduring efforts by civil society that has continuously brought to the nation’s conscience what women are going through.
The many marches and demonstrations highlighting the plight of women have not had the desired effect on safety, protection and care. The promises made by the government to combat the scourge have been met by an escalation of a nightmare perpetrated by the scumbags unrepentantly reducing hard-earned democracy to a loaded dice to gamble with.
In 2018, women, men and young people marched throughout the country, demanding that urgent action be taken to address gender-based violence and femicide. Due to the massive pressure, the government convened the first Presidential Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide on November 1 and 2, 2018.
A broad representation of civil society organisations and the government came together in Pretoria. President Cyril Ramaphosa hosted the meeting. At the end of the remarkable summit, a declaration was signed with five key interventions to be implemented over the next six months.
The declaration had anticipated that a lot of ground would have been covered by the end of May 2019. The five pillars included an urgent response to victims and survivors of GBV; broadening access to justice for survivors; changing social norms and behaviour through high-level awareness-raising and prevention campaigns; strengthening architecture and promoting accountability; and the creation of more economic opportunities for women who were vulnerable to abuse because of poverty.
The critical part of the declaration committed to the constitution of a Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Council by April 2020. The council was to be a permanent, multisectoral structure, with a responsibility to steer and monitor the implementation of a National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (NSP on GBVF) 2020 to 2030.
This was a solid plan that civil society committed to, and it trusted that the government would stick to the timelines it had set for itself. In Parliament on September 18, 2019, the president announced an Emergency Response Action Plan that would be implemented to mobilise all sectors of society against gender-based violence and guide the co-ordination of the national effort. In the government's first Report on the roll-out for May 2020 to April 30 last year, the report shows that the NSP on GBVF was launched on April 30, 2020 as the country fell under the grip of a hard lockdown.
The roll-out launch was carried out without the National Council on GBVF being in place. Consequently, the government failed the women of this country by opting for self-monitoring and not setting up a structure as was resolved at the presidential summit.
Frankly speaking, Covid-19 had nothing to do with the government’s failure. A report in this regard suggests that the Covid-19 pandemic overshadowed all priorities. This, when the president repeatedly told the nation that GBVF was a pandemic in the country.
The report further tells us that there was political leadership and prioritisation of GBVF that has provided important impetus to bringing stakeholders on board and increasing the contributions of key sectors such as the private sector and the faith community.
However, while the participation of stakeholders is good, only a few government departments have successfully embedded the NSP on GBVF within their operations. Notably, the Department of Women, Youth and People with Disabilities, and the Presidency as a whole, are failing to hold the other ministers to account and to implement what the president promised the people of this country.
There is a serious problem when the report states clearly that, on average, 10 departments have compliance of 50% and above, ranging from 52% to 100%. It further states that the pace of delivery reflected in the reports has been slow and uneven and has not demonstrated the level of prioritisation required to respond to the GBV crisis.
If the president was serious about the implementation of the NSP on GBVF, more than 50% of the Cabinet ministers would have been retired at that time, for failure to implement such a critical strategy.
Through its failure to keep to its timelines, the people of this country are left with a government that evidently does not take their pain and suffering seriously. Minister for Women, Youth and People with Disabilities Maite Nkoana-Mashabane has been scarce in responding to episodes that have traumatised women and children lately.
She was unavailable when 21 young people died in a tavern in East London. Nkoana-Mashabane’s presence at the joyous victory parade of the Banyana Banyana national soccer team could not be faulted. However, the pain of the nation’s women and children requires no less of her department’s care and support.
She has not come out to support the eight young women raped in Krugersdorp but did not miss the launch of Women’s Month in KZN. When we needed her to represent us in showing empathy and compassion to the victims and their families, she was never broken-hearted.
Her absence sends a clear signal that the government does not really care about the nation’s pain, especially women’s. Women are scared every waking moment of their lives. Some of us even wake up in the middle of the night to check if the very doors that get broken down are really locked.
Perpetually scared to go out unaccompanied at night, a woman’s fear is compounded by weather-like updates of blackouts from Eskom. The darkness stalking our lives has turned into an opportunity for women to be attacked, raped and robbed while they’re on their way home from work. Girls on their way to or from school must ensure they walk in groups, so they can be protected.
Walking alone has become an invitation for danger. Women and children in villages suffer quietly in their corners while they are abused. Ministers who do not take the scourge seriously have no reason to keep the honour of the offices they occupy.
The president needs to risk his political life no less for us. We need a very angry president. Until and unless that happens, we are on our own here and we can just pray hard that we do not become another statistic.
* Mkhwanazi-Xaluva is the 70’s Group chairperson. The group is inspired by thought leaders and liberation activists of the late 1960s and 1970s who created a consciousness that fostered the fight against racism. It is staunchly anti-sectarian, anti-racist and anti-sexist, and engages in a community-focused strategy in its activities to build a country of equals for common humanity.