GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA
Over the years, I thought that gender-based violence (GBV) was a thing of the past, especially in South Africa, due to the numerous campaigns and awareness conducted by both the government and the non-governmental organizations. After studying this course, I realized that South Africa is the second country in Africa ranking after Rwanda in advocating for gender equality and women’s rights. In parliament, there is evidence of 45% women representation, which is positive in terms of the United Nations millennium development goals. Local registration and international declaration support that gender based violence hinders development and peace since it impairs women from enjoying the freedom and basic human rights. South Africa is determined to uplift all the women that live in the state. Nevertheless, despite efforts gender based violence cases remain on the rise. Gender-based violence is influenced by several factors: religious, economic, cultural, and social (Ndulo & Grieco, 2009). In this analysis, I ought to critically analyze gender-based violence in South Africa to develop sound interventions to control it.
Initially, I understood gender violence as the fight between a husband and wife or rape cases in the society where physical harassment was evident. I was wrong since gender based violence is the common term used to relate to violence that results from normative role anticipation linked with each gender and the unbalanced power relationship between genders in various social settings. This involves several forms of gender-based violence: domestic violence, which is the most common form of violence reported by married couples and involves physical and verbal threats, sexual assault, and sexual harassment. Physical violence involves pushing, punching, slapping, and using objects and instruments during the violence (Langford, Cousins, Dugard & Madlingozi, n.d.). Economic violence which includes partners control of assets and resources. Sexual violence involves rape, sexual exploitation, and sexual harassment. Emotional violence involves belittling others, verbal abuse, and calling each other names.
After acquiring a proper understanding of gender based violence, looking keenly at South Africa, there still exist some extent of the violence even with the continuous effort to curb the menace. The annual crime statistics released by the South African Police Service (SAPS) lack substantial evidence about gender-based violence. What they provide is information about sexual harassment and offenses. This makes me question their reliability in fighting this challenge or whether they underestimate or overestimate the seriousness of this problem. On the other side, I realized that many victims of gender-based violence do not bother reporting about the crime due to some police personnel’s patriarchal attitudes. Thus, this makes the statistics released by the SAPS annually biased (Juma & Klot, 2011). This topic lacks enough qualitative studies due to the sensitivity of this matter in society, making it hard for victims to confess and talk about the matter openly during interviews.
In South Africa, some cultural practices are the causes of several domestic violence. According to African culture, men are placed in a powerful position by some cultural practices more than women, such as lobola. Lobola is the practice that involves payment of dowry to the family of the woman before marriage informs of livestock, money, or with variable commodities in the society. Its main purpose is to act as an appreciation to the family for offering their daughter for marriage. However, I feel some men in the South African culture misuse this by considering this payment as the right to mistreat and control their wives as their property (“Horror of Gender-Based Violence Revealed in South African …”, n.d.). When questioned about why they abuse their partners, many assert that “I paid lobola for her.” Surprisingly, women encourage this, especially after a man fully pays the lobola. He has the right to abuse her partner, and any woman that does not tolerate fellow women in society ridicule this. I’m afraid that’s not right since it is against human rights regulations, and it can have long term negative consequences.
Ukuthwala is another cultural practice that I felt oppress women’s rights in South Africa and, to some extent, promotes gender based violence. It involves the abduction of the female partner forcefully and taking her to the man’s house for marriage. Although the government considers it a legal practice when the girl is above the age of 18 years, it’s wrong since many girls are against it despite the existence of planned procedures in some cases. The practice is accompanied by several negative factors, including lack of right to education, which stagnates individuals who are willing to develop themselves, and the HIV positive men continue to infect their new wives. In my opinion, Ukuthwala is strongly associated with gender based violence since it’s difficult for small girls to bargain for safe sex (Graaff & Heinecken, 2017). This is evidence that this cultural practice is against girls’ rights in South Africa, and the government should curb it from the constitution if they are determined to fight gender based violence.
According to my understanding, Individuals who grow up in households characterized by violence are at a high risk of normalizing violence later in their lifetime. For instance, if a boy grew up in a household where the father batters the mother when she does something wrong, it may have long-term impacts on his approach to gender-based violence. There exist a strong link between early exposure to violence and the reoccurrence of it to the individual later in life. When a child is abused violently by the father, there exist chances that the child’s anger towards his father may be projected to his partner as an adult. This results in a biased view of gender-based violence due to the attitude created at an early age. I have witnessed my childhood friend whom his father used to fight his mother fight his girlfriend based on making a point since he learned it from his parents that morally upright for a man to fight a woman when a disagreement arises to make the woman toe the line (“Gender-Based Violence in SA,” n.d.). This is morally wrong, and such negative traits should be discouraged by charging the involved parties in a court of law.
In this topic, I have realized that poverty goes hand in hand with gender based violence, although in some instances, it’s indirect in one way or another, it is a main perpetrator of violence. Lack of economic independence for women in South Africa has led to an increase in the number of reported gender based violence. This is because they depend on men for basic needs, and despite abuse in the relationship, it makes it difficult for the women to leave or report. When women’s economic status changes, the rates of gender-based violence may decrease or increase (de Lange, Mitchell & Bhana, 2012). Economic dependent women are less likely to encounter gender based violence since they can easily walk away from abusive relationships without the fear of lacking financial support. Considering the low education rate of women in South Africa, this, to some extent, increases the risk of violence occurrence. On the other hand, if the economic status of women changes, it can lead to increased GBV since the man may feel inferior when the woman provides for the basic needs, and in efforts to regain his masculinity, violence may result.
Gender-based violence results in some negative consequences physically, emotionally, and psychologically to the well-being of the women and their health. As a result, I feel that the direct cost related to it is relatively high. Considering the cost of rushing the victim to the hospital in ambulances and the care given later in safe houses, the cost of police vehicle fuel to go and make arrests, the money required to feed the perpetrator in prison and all the costs of the court and hospital bills to treat the victim makes the expenses so high. When I consider the indirect cost, on the other hand, which includes the possible loss of the victim’s tax revenue and family financial support in cases that result in loss of life. The victims also use other government services, adding an extra burden to system budgets. Considering this, I think gender-based violence costs the society economy dearly (Britton, n.d.). All these extra burdens are a result of gender based violence. Thus I feel that if the South African government controls violence in the country, it can save a substantial amount to invest in other more essential goals like creating job opportunities and improving housing.
Initially, I was of the perception that gender based violence in South Africa was rare, considering the statistics released by the South African police service annually. However, after some critical analysis of the statistics presented, I realized that most of the sexual harassment reported results from domestic violence and other gender-related violence (Abrahams, Jewkes & Mathews, 2010). This means that gender-based violence is the main challenge facing many countries globally, including South Africa. However, I discovered some cultural activities like Lobola and Ukuthwala increase the occurrence of gender based violence since the government legally recognizes them. Although I don’t suggest that these are the only factors that lead to GBV in South Africa, they are among the unique factors found in the country compared to anywhere else globally.
References
Abrahams, N., Jewkes, R., & Mathews, S. (2010). Guns and gender-based violence in South Africa. South African Medical Journal, 100(9), 586. doi: 10.7196/samj.3904
Britton, H. Ending gender-based violence.
De Lange, N., Mitchell, C., & Bhana, D. (2012). Voices of women teachers about gender inequalities and gender-based violence in rural South Africa. Gender And Education, 24(5), 499-514. doi: 10.1080/09540253.2011.645022
Gender-Based Violence in SA. Retrieved 2020, from http://www.csvr.org.za/pdf/Gender%20Based%20Violence%20in%20South%20Africa%20-%20A%20Brief%20Review.pdf
Graaff, K., & Heinecken, L. (2017). Masculinities and gender-based violence in South Africa: A study of a masculinities-focused intervention program. Development Southern Africa, 34(5), 622-634. doi: 10.1080/0376835x.2017.1334537
The horror of Gender-Based Violence Revealed in South African … Retrieved 2020, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-12/horror-of-gender-based-violence-revealed-in-south-african-report
Juma, M., & Klot, J. (2011). HIV/AIDS, gender, human security, and violence in Southern Africa. Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa.
Langford, M., Cousins, B., Dugard, J., & Madlingozi, T. Socio-economic rights in South Africa.
Ndulo, M., & Grieco, M. (2009). Power, gender, and social change in Africa. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
Slater, J. (2013). Gender Voicelessness and Violence In South Africa: The Inner Hypocrisy Of Moral Ambiguity. Scriptura, 112(0), 1. doi: 10.7833/112-0-69
South Africa, in a crisis of violence against women, says … Retrieved 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/06/south-africa-faces-national-crisis-of-violence-against-women-says-president
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