Activists are amplifying the call for collective action in addressing gender-based violence and femicide (GBV/F), as 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children gets underway.
This year’s theme is “Letsema: Men, Women, Boys and Girls working together to end Gender-Based Violence and Femicide”.
This is the 27th year since the adoption of the campaign, and Celeste Matthews-Wannenburgh of the activist group Women Zone Cape Town hopes it will be the year that the wheels of justice start to turn faster.
The campaign begins just days after GBV/F was declared a national disaster. Government engagements on the matter are scheduled to continue this Friday.
That decision followed citizens and activists’ deep frustration with South Africa’s justice system, especially in dealing with cases of GBV/F.
Meanwhile, a report titled The Crisis of Crime Against Children in South Africa: A Call for Accountability and Urgent Reform by Action Society revealed that the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Gauteng together account for more than 60% of child murders in the country. The report also notes that rape is the most prevalent crime committed against children, with statistics showing that nearly one in every five rape victims is under the age of 10.
Matthews-Wannenburgh said she is “outraged by the relentless and escalating violence against women and children in this beautifully God-forsaken country we live in”.
She believes that the prevalence of such incidents has been normalised, adding that violence against women and children should never be acceptable.
“A South Africa where women and children are forced to live in continual fear. A country where cases disappear into backlogs, perpetrators walk free, survivors are traumatized and re-traumatized, and justice becomes a distant dream instead of a constitutional guarantee. When the justice system fails to act, violence flourishes and that failure is a deadly one,” said Matthews-Wannenburgh.
Matthews-Wannenburgh warns that each new case represents a family left to carry “unbearable trauma”.
She insists that the country must stop treating gender-based violence as routine, adding that “it is not normal” and must no longer be tolerated.
She said South Africans must confront the crisis, which she calls a “human rights emergency”, with determination and unity.
She emphasised that “silence is not an option”.
