TSWELOPELE MAKOE
Johannesburg - The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign – an annual initiative from the end of November to mid-December – need no longer be the only period during which this pertinent issue is put under a microscope.
This is a widespread societal disease that ought to be addressed both in key national discourse as well as constantly among the general populace. Femicide and violence against children have been consistent issues in our country’s contemporary context for too long. Not only has this devastating phenomenon been unpacked, researched and campaigned against, but was such a huge societal headache in South Africa that it was wrestled with almost equal vigour as the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 16 Days of Activism are especially vital to South Africans as we enter into the festive season – or silly season – notorious for the increase in criminality. This December month is not only a time when levels of alcohol consumption reach a dangerous peak, but also when flocks of the public take their annual leave from work, and the roads are filled with those rushing to their home towns to enjoy their holiday.
However, this is also a time when social tensions are excessively elevated. Violence against women, children, queer people, and those with disabilities is especially heightened. This is added to the already prevalent issues of substance abuse, increased car accidents, as well as mental health challenges and suicide rates that spike at this time of the year. For these reasons, it is vital that we, as citizens, are starkly aware of these dangerous patterns at this time of the year.
The 16 Days of Activism was first started by the UN as an annual campaign. It helps in bringing into focus the trauma and devastation of femicide and GBV across societies. This year’s instructive theme is: “Socio-economic rights and empowerment to build women’s resilience against gender-based violence and femicide: connect, collaborate, contract!”
President Cyril Ramaphosa has previously underscored GBV as our nation’s “second pandemic” (following Covid-19). As a result, we welcomed the induction of the Emergency Response Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, declared by our president in September 2019. The 16 Days of Activism is the culmination of the government’s year-round plan of activism aimed at raising public awareness and action to protect women and children.
As always, this period will essentially consist of a plethora of public discourse and dialogue with communities across the nation. There will also be a multitude of private and public sector events, together with civil society groups, who will collaborate in their noble fight to tackle GBV.
At this time to tackle GBV, I believe that we should no longer relegate the issue of GBV to be our collective focus mainly at this time of the year alone. GBV, as a plague to our society, should be raised throughout the 365 calendar days every year.
The issue of GBV is not only concentrated in our social dynamics, it is also entrenched in our religious, economic and structural pillars. It stems from our deeply patriarchal colonial history that seeks to silence and diminish women’s voices and values. It further pours into our race-based post-colonial society, where black people and other people of colour continue to grapple with a discriminatory, inequitable, racist, sexist and homophobic system and structure.
This dangerous arrangement seeks to maintain their socio-economic disempowerment and seeks to further hinder and disadvantage its citizens. Scores of South Africans are in a constant state of conflict, not only through their livelihoods in perilous situations, but also in their own homes. The lack of better life chances and opportunities for economic empowerment also facilitates a dismal disposition.
Too many people are living hand-to-mouth, working to the bare minimum, just to stay alive. Others have huge entrepreneurial dreams but lack the resources to achieve their plans. A prevalent characteristic of this society is alcoholism – often the main product of people’s wages and earnings, and a key resource in the build-up to physical and sexual violence behavioural patterns.
Our post-apartheid society may be modern, and we may be exposed to contemporary resources such as the internet, but as a nation, we continue to exist and be directly affected by a system that is rooted in capitalist toxicity and is fuelling our mental disintegration. When we discuss GBV and femicide, we should be discussing how we not only deal with the ramifications of this violence, but also the structures that directly fuel this violence and the methods which average citizens should undertake to manoeuvre those challenges.
Femicide and “othering” (the intentional alienation of someone else) are not only dangerously prevalent in this country, but it also sets an appalling presupposition for our future. It leaks the very dangerous sentiments of intolerance into our social norms and conventions. As a result, violence based on toxic masculinity and phallocentrism takes centre stage, and our society remains severely unchanging and regressive.
A societal system and organisation where not only men have power, but very particular types of men are empowered, is not only archaic, but is inherently exclusionary, and is an unrealistic representation of our modern civilisation. Contemporarily, we are not only aware of our diversity as a society, but we also fully embrace our multiplicitous nature. We cannot continue to enforce inconsequential differentiations among each other, more so the types of differences that seek to entice violent and intolerable behaviours within our society.
As citizens with diverse backgrounds, we are often enthralled in our world with our problems. However, as you reflect on the closing of another year this December, I implore you to think about one thing that you can do to challenge the rampant issue of GBV, to think about your mothers and children, and to realise that their safety and security should not be seasonal.
In matters of life and death, their safety should be prioritised throughout 365 days of the year.
* Tswelopele Makoe is MA (Ethics) student at the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice at UWC. She is also a gender activist.