Editorial comment
This year the legacy of the month of August, in which South Africa honours and celebrates its women, has been tarnished by the most violent incidents of domestic violence, femicide and the murder of children.
Topping the list of the month’s most horrific domestic violence cases is the brutal killings in which a young Durban father collected all four of his young children, ages four, six, 10 and 16, from their respective schools.
He then took them to the family house, hanged three of them, and later strangled the eldest in a forest nearby. Emerging reports about this brutal multiple domestic murder are that it may have been as a result of the court decree concluding his divorce from his wife.\
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The gory details of how the distraught father in his early 40s went about killing his own children, is a reflection of our brutalised society. The couple’s eldest child, a learner at a local girls’ high-school is believed to have been strangled with her nightgown, while their mother was driving around with the police, frantically trying to save her life.
Then there was also the equally brutal and violent murder of a young female Cape Town University student who was murdered by a post officer employee, a fortnight earlier. The list of crimes included domestic abuse and violence, with innocent children, even men, not spared.
During this month, women, young and old, used social media platform to publicly relate their grief and hurt as victims of rape and abuse in their teens. Many have been so traumatised by unreported incidents of rape which robbed them of their “youth” and “innocence”. They have even resorted to publicly naming and shaming their violators in a bid to find closure to their unresolved trauma.
What aggravates matters, and trauma, for the gender-based violence victims is the failure by the law to bring the perpetrators to book. One young rape survivor said each time she saw her violator “walk up and down the streets of our township”, it felt like being “raped by the same man, again and again, and again”.
Such is the trauma experienced by many rapes and abused domestic violence by women and children.
The entire nation seems to be suddenly possessed by some devilish force that has turned some men to regard women and children as prey, and as sexual objects to be molested and abused to their delight and joy.
Young girls and teenagers are often groomed for the sex industry. Many of them are easily lured into the sex trade with false promises of lucrative jobs, easy money, and endless fun and pleasure, in the showbiz or hotel industry overseas.
Despite known incidents of violence, crime and drugs in the sex industry, human traffickers are still able to successfully target naive young girls on the streets, high-school and even at university, with promises of money and fame. Many of the young women, and sometimes male, often end up bitterly disappointed as the promised life of glitter comes to nothing.
Looking back at what was supposed to have been a joyful month in honour of all the women of South Africa, the month of August disappointingly turned out to be the most violent month as far as gender and family violence are concerned.
More blood of innocent women, children, and even men has needlessly been spilled as a result of spousal and child abuse. Domestic violence is unacceptable in the eyes of normal society.
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It is for these reasons we welcome the stance taken by the head of the Market Theatre Foundation, John Kani. The actor’s open discussions with men in the arts and entertainment industry about the folly of domestic violence last week is enlightening.
The entertainment industry is appealing to young people who believe showbiz is the only stairway to riches, fame, and stardom. And it is often the youth’s naivety that has seen their hopes and dreams shattered, living many of them in utter despair, or dead.
The world-renowned stage and film actor urged all men involved in the arts to use their platforms to fight gender violence and child abuse.
“We as artists are visible influencers and it is about time for those of us who can use the ubiquity of our voices, and the power of our celebrity status, to say, “Enough is enough. The violence must stop now.” He said it was necessary to confront this evil scourge of femicide head-on.
Kani said it was time for male artists and celebrities to break the walls of silence around abuse and femicide.
“By taking the lead from one of South Africa’s most iconic artists, we want men to reclaim the responsibility that we have to end gender-based violence,” he said.
Meanwhile, former president Nelson Mandela’s widow, Graca Machel, speaking at Uyinene Mrwetyana’s memorial service at the University of Cape Town, urged South Africans to take a bold pledge against gender-based violence. The young female student was allegedly killed by a post office employee during the week of growing gender crimes. “This child has left us, and I can say with no fear that she took a little bit of all of us.”
“Our reality is, we are a society where women and children are not safe anywhere. Something absolutely and deeply wrong is happening in our society, and it has to begin here where we ask the hard questions and more importantly contribute to finding answers,” said Machel.
“This is a call for all South Africans. This is not South Africa we fought for, and we have the power and capacity to change things. Yes there are policies, but policies don’t bring change, action brings change.”
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