Women are prisoners in SA today

Women are victims of a society that just does not care. Crimes against women in South Africa continue undeterred.

When men are considered frustrated, women bear the brunt, when they are happy, likewise.

During lockdown, everything seemed to be barred, except for killing the female population of our beloved country.

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We were told to stay at home, but there was no safety there as many were confined with their abusers.

Meanwhile, women workers in the retail sector braved the deserted streets fearing what lurked in bushes and urban areas alike.

South African women are dying for love, with their bodies found under beds in shoddy shacks, the smell of decomposing bodies masked by the filth of their surrounds.

Our daughters, who believe in love, those who love to love, are being buried in enormous numbers.

What can the women of our generation celebrate this and every other Women’s Month when we are being slaughtered in such numbers in the guise of love?

Now that even pregnant women are not safe, South Africa has reached a new low.

We have for the longest time been named the rape capital of the world, but today we are unquestionably a nation of no conscience.

READ MORE: GBV: Being a woman in South Africa is a struggle

The conversation we need to start having as a society is how under democracy have we arrived at a point where women walk around with targets on their backs?

We have moved from fear of an oppressor of a different skin colour to fear of an oppressor that resembles our brothers, fathers and husbands.

Today, women are prisoners and their bodies are crime scenes.

Today, we mourn the violation of women by several men who may not even be legally in this country.

We are appalled, we are sad – but three weeks from now, it will be a distant memory.

While rights groups may want to hold government and law enforcement agencies accountable, the truth is that families have failed to provide their members with an ethical grounding.

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