Township associations call for action to end violence

Township associations called on informal and micro-business owners and employees to wear orange on the 25th day of each month in solidarity against gender-based violence (GBV).
This request came from the Informal Economy Development Forum and the South African Informal Traders Alliance (SAITA) which collectively represent over 5.2 million informal and micro-businesses across South Africa.
“Too often we are seeing reports of the senseless murder of innocent, strong women. The most recent is the death of Hillary Gardee,” said Paul Bester, National Director of Informal Sector Support at SAITA and IEDF.
“As a community of informal traders, we cannot stand idly by while women and girls are being hurt or murdered. We can only begin to fix this scourge once every sector, community, city, village and township commits to rooting out gender-based violence where we work and live. For this reason, we are calling on informal traders and small and micro-businesses to show their support for women and girls, and end GBV by wearing orange on the 25th day of every month.”
Bester said the choice of colour is in support of the United Nations UNiTE campaign against gender-based violence, aimed at raising awareness and taking action to end violence against women and girls.
UNiTED’s Orange Day calls on activists, governments, and UN partners to mobilise people and highlight issues relevant to preventing and ending violence against women and girls, every month and not only once a year, on November 25, which is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Bester said in addition to raising awareness by wearing orange, he would also like to see informal traders and micro-business owners, predominantly women, become activists for the rights of women and girls.
“There are several ways that we can collectively instil this activism,” said Bester.
“The first way is to take a stand against GBV, in the workplace, at home and in the communities where we live. Violence against women and girls is unacceptable, and it is only when all take a firm stand against it that it will create a behavioural change within society.
“The second way is to be part of creating safe havens or safe spaces for women and girls who need help and to help guide them to the proper channels of professional assistance. The third is to teach our boys how to treat women and stop instilling a culture of toxic masculinity. This will create a generation of men that will think and behave differently towards women.”
“Statistics by the SAPS show that there were more than 9,500 cases of GBV and 13,000 cases of domestic violence reported between July and September 2021. Over the same period, 897 women were murdered. Sexual offence cases increased by 4.7% and incidents of rape increased by 7.1%, compared to the second quarter of 2020.”