Call to action against gender-based violence in SA

AWAKENING THE CONSCIENCE

- ANELE SISWANA

THE fight against gender-based violence is not a women's issue - it is a human issue, one that implicates us all, says the writer. | Independent Media

(Independent Media)

THE scourge of gender-based violence (GBV), femicide and child abuse continues to tear through the moral fabric of South Africa. For many, these atrocities are not newspaper headlines - they are daily lived realities. They occur in homes, schools, workplaces and tragically, within our universities.

In the rural communities, townships and informal settlements, violence against women and children is often hidden behind walls of silence, shame and patriarchy. There, survivors are made to believe that they are the problem - that their pain is their fault; that their suffering is part of life. It is in these very spaces that our collective conscience must awaken.

South Africa marked the National Women's Shutdown yesterday, a day of nonviolent protest and solidarity. It was a day that compelled us to pause and ask: How long will we allow the silence to suffocate us?

How can institutions of higher learning become sanctuaries for healing rather than spaces of harm?

As a newly appointed lecturer in the Department of Psychology, I have been moved by the University of the Free State's (UFS) proactive stance in responding to social injustices.

Yet, even within our walls, the question remains: How do we transform commitment into concrete protection, advocacy and care for the most vulnerable among us?

The crisis before us: The data continues to confront us. A national survey by the Human Sciences Research Council found that 33.1% of South African women - over seven million - have experienced physical violence.

Nearly 10%, or about two million women, have survived sexual assault. According to the South African Medical Research Council, seven women are murdered every day, most by intimate partners.