Women and children face daily violence in South Africa. Collective action, awareness, and corporate support are vital to end this national crisis.
It’s not easy reading our lead story today. It was even harder writing it for the abused and battered woman who realised her downward trajectory of violence would only end up one way for her… in a grave.
To this day, she lives in fear – even though she has moved away from the man. She still cannot bring herself to say his name.
If we were to look at this grim story by pure journalistic yardsticks, it would not qualify as news – because news is defined as something which is unusual, out of the ordinary.
Sadly, in South Africa today, battering women and murdering them has become the norm.
Sure, there are instances when women assault their male partners, but those are a vanishingly small percentage of the probably millions of incidents annually of gender-based violence (GBV).
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Today, at midday, women and their allies will lie down in offices, streets and public spaces to honour the 15 women murdered every day. Dressed in black, their collective stillness will echo louder than any chant or megaphone.
The Women’s National Shutdown, led by the non-profit organisation, Women for Change (WFC), is a collective outcry rooted not only in frustration, but in the urgent need for survival.
As a company, the Caxton Group supports WFC and the shutdown, because we know our country will never achieve the greatness it deserves with this terrible stain on our collective conscience.
We know, too, that this is not a fight solely for women and nor is it up to the government alone to tackle GBV. This is a fight for everyone – and corporates need to play their part, too.
This is not about the bottom line. This is about building a safer South Africa for our women and children. And that, in the end, will be of benefit to all of us.
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