Men's mental health and the fight against GBVF in SA

KUNZIMA, bafwethu (It’s difficult, brothers). Being a man in South Africa means carrying silent battles, pressures to provide financially to your family, expectations to remain strong, and we're told to bury even our deepest pains.

- SANDILE MLANGENI

We were taught to “man up, not to open up”! And so we bottle things in “(sifela ngaphakathi)”, a usual setting among men. The statistics are grim: men account for the vast majority of suicides in South Africa, a stark reflection of a mental health crisis festering in silence.

As men, we don’t talk because we’re scared of being judged. We don’t seek help because we're afraid of looking weak.

This silence isn’t just killing men; it’s fuelling the epidemic of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF). It’s time to challenge this narrative and redefine strength as vulnerability, because every man’s life matters, and so does every woman and child’s safety associated with men who are emotionally wounded.

South Africa faces a suicide crisis that disproportionately claims men. According to The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) estimates, the country has a suicide rate of 11.5 per 100 000 people in 2020/21, with men making up 75% of cases.

The South African Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag) reports 23 known suicides daily, with men consistently making up three-quarters of these deaths, based on data from 2019. For every suicide, 10 others have attempted it, pointing to widespread untreated mental distress.

Men are five times more likely to die by suicide than women globally, and in South Africa, this gap is even wider. Behind these numbers are stories of despair: 9.7% of South Africans (4.5 million people) experience depression in their lifetime, and 70% of those who attempt suicide have a mental health condition.

A 2020 report by the World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted that 75% of those with mental illnesses lack access to adequate care, constrained by an underfunded health system, and a culture that stigmatises weakness.