Programme Director
MEC for Social Development and Special Programmes
Mayor of Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality
Representatives of NGOs and CBOs
Traditional leaders
Senior Government officials
Delegates from various sectors
Ladies and gentlemen
On Tuesday this week I watched with shock and dismay an episode of 3rd Degree (e-tv show) which focused on the brutal rape of two elderly women in KwaZulu-Natal. This horrific and inhumane act on our most vulnerable and defenseless elderly citizens left the people of KwaSwayimane Village with more questions than answers.
Like the rest of us they are asking themselves where we have gone wrong as a nation to have a 28 year old man having the courage to violently rape a 94 year old woman, old enough to be his grandmother.
The rape of any person, of any age is a barbaric crime and should be condemned with the strongest words and action. But ladies and gentlemen the trend of violence against the elderly does not seem to end and is an indication of a nation that has lost its moral compass.
And soon, if we do not deal decisively with this crisis we might find ourselves being labeled a self-destructive nation. This is not the tag we would want to be associated with, especially after the gains that we have made since the African National Congress (ANC) government came into power in 1994.
When ANC led us to glory against the evil system of apartheid in 1994, we did not have the slightest imagination that 18 years down the line we would be dealing with a new kind of monster which is threatening to reverse the gains we have made as a nation.
This monster that I am talking about is Gender Based Violence and it is has been a constant feature in many of our communities despite all the efforts that have been made by government and civil society to curb it. But what is Gender Based Violence really? A number of definitions have been bandied about to explain gender based violence. The United Nation High Commission for Refugees defines it as “Violations of fundamental human rights that perpetuate sex-stereotyped roles that deny human dignity and self-determination of the individual and hamper human development.”
Definitions aside, what I know is that when Gender Based Violence strikes it lives on its path lifelong emotional and physical scars mainly to defenseless women and children.
I am not being biased when I say Gender Based Violence affects mainly women and children, I am being realistic and honest because the statistics depict exactly that picture. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand the statistics and see the dilemma we are facing.
According to a Gender Links, Gender Based Violence study released in 2011 which focused on Gauteng, over half the women of Gauteng (51.3 %) have experienced some form violence in their lifetime. In the same study it emerged that 75.5 % of men in the economic hub of our country admit to perpetrating some form of violence against women. Our own province is also not immune to these disturbing trends.
There has been an unacceptable increase in the rate of gender based violence in our province on an annual basis. In 2009/10 there were 4026 victims of crime and violence, in 2010/11 we had 8616 and in 2011/12 we had 12451 victims of crime and violence. Fellow delegates if that is not a crisis I do not know what is.
Our convergence here over the next two days therefore should seek to assess the road we have navigated so far, the challenges we have met and how we should overcome them and indeed we should look at new ways of dealing with this dilemma.
What is evident though, is that we have a mountain to climb to address gender-based violence and unless we make this social ill a prominent feature in our political agenda now, we might take longer to address it.
Our government has since 1994 invested so much resources and time and showed impeccable commitment to women’s rights and gender equality. Quite recently our government has once again shown its hand by announcing that a National Council Against Gender-Based Violence will be set up to help protect women.
The council has been charged with the following responsibilities:
- drive the implementation of the 365 Days National Plan and advise government on policy and intervention programmes;
- strengthen national partnerships in the fight against gender-based violence;
- create and strengthen international partnerships on gender-based violence;
- and monitor and report progress on initiatives aimed at addressing gender-based violence.
We welcome this development and are confident that the council will do its work successfully if we all work together in unison. A couple of years ago our country faced an uncertain future, as HIV and Aids ravaged our people.
But within a matter of years after government showed political will and decisive leadership on this matter we saw significant reduction in the number of new infections, decrease in the stigmatisation of HIV and Aids and may more of our people heeded the call for voluntary counseling and testing.
There is absolutely no way that we can allow Gender Based Violence which is perpetuated by other human beings to hold our nation in ransom.
The hope of many people in our province to curb this dilemma rests in our collective shoulders. An old grandmother, a young girl and a right thinking man in the cliffs and valleys of Lusikisiki relies on us to come up with workable solutions in this conference, so that when they go to sleep at night, they don’t end up being rape or murder statistics the following morning.
We have a responsibility therefore to engage robustly and enthusiastically on this matter knowing fully well that our resolutions might change the course of history with regards to Gender Based Violence in our province.
I wish us, not you, a successful conference as we seek to turn the tide against this monster.
I thank you.
