The seminar was
attended by 30 participants from academia, inter-governmental organisations,
government departments and NGOs.
Gender-based violence in South Africa
On average seven women were murdered every day in South
Africa between March 2010 and March 2011, according to the police crime
statistics released in September 2011. At least half of these murders will have
been at the hands of intimate partners. During that same period the police
recorded 89 956 cases of common assault against women (247 cases a day) and 56
272 cases of rape (154 a day). The police did not provide a breakdown of the
statistics such that it was possible to determine the extent to which domestic
violence (or intimate partner violence) contributed to the statistics for
assault, attempted murder and murder, yet recent research by the Medical
Research Council and Genderlinks shows that more than half of the women in
Gauteng have experienced some sort of violence at the hands of their intimate
partners and about 80% of men disclose having perpetrated such violence. At the
same time, young black men remain more likely than any other demographic group
to be the victims of homicide. These data suggest that understanding the
gendered nature of violence in South Africa is essential to finding ways to
address and reduce violent crime.
In this seminar Prof Rachel Jewkes, Director of the Medical
Research Council’s Gender and Health Research Unit presented the findings of gender-based
violence prevalence studies, she reported on measured attitudinal changes
towards gender-equality, and concluded with reflections on whether we are doing
enough of the right interventions. Prof Jewkes showed that while women’s and
perceived community attitudes towards gender equality have changed, positively,
since 1998 this does not seem to have had any effect on the perpetration of
gender-based violence. She presented data about the extent of gender-based
violence (GBV) perpetration in South Africa and discussed the multiplicity of
factors that drive GBV. She concluded by offering a range of recommendations
for addressing GBV, but perhaps most importantly questioned our reliance on the
criminal justice system to address rape and intimate partner violence, arguing
that changing behavior requires early intervention. Such interventions could
include programmes to improve parenting, to keep young men busy after school to
reduce the amount of time they ‘hang-out’, to address teen views on sexual entitlement
and to address substance abuse.
Our second speaker, Lisa Vetten, Director of Tshwaranang
Legal Advocacy Centre to End Violence Against Women reported on a study that examined
selected government departments’ implementation of the 1998 Domestic Violence Act,
as well as other associated policies. Patchy implementation of current legislation,
she argued, undermined both responses to victims of domestic violence, as well
its prevention. Her presentation drew on a recent report by the Tshwaranang
Legal Advocacy Centre to End Violence Against Women titled “The Right and the
Real: A shadow report analyzing selected government departments’ implementation
of the 1998 Domestic Violence Act and 2007 Sexual Offences Act.’ The report
examined the actions (and inaction) of the police, Department of Justice and
Constitutional Development, the National Prosecuting Authority and supporting
departments towards implementation of the legislation. It concluded that
implementation of the DVA has “stagnated and the SOA to be largely stillborn,
with officials neither routinely expected to justify or explain their
(in)action, nor consequences following from their non-implementation of
legislation. The failures occur at multiple levels and across a range of
dimensions.â€Â
