Townsfolk joined the national 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign sweeping through South Africa to add their voices to the thousands of others breaking their silence.

The march, which took place on November 30, began at Newcastle High School and proceeded to the Newcastle Town Hall, where various speakers took to the podium. Various organisations, such as Lifeline and Rape Crisis, Newcastle Municipality Special Programmes, SANCA, the “I Matter” Foundation joined in a collective effort to raise awareness.

Sinikiwe Biyela from Lifeline Pietermaritzburg revealed their organisation has counselled over 1000 women affected by abuse in the Amajuba District from April to October this year, a figure she describes as staggering.

“It is very worrying because we believe this number is actually higher as cases also go unreported. The scourge of violence against women and children lives within us, it affects people we know; our sisters, our mothers, our children, our neighbours and we all need to play an active role in trying to bring these numbers down,” she exclaimed.

Biyela also believes councillors themselves need to be more vulnerable.

“We too need to be honest with ourselves. We must ask ourselves if we’re doing enough to fight abuse in our communities. Residents also need to be honest with us by telling us what we might not be doing right and what we need to change. We must really work hard in making measurable change. We are always grooming the girl-child and we are neglecting the boy-child,” she stated.

Biyela also questioned old traditions which she believes may contribute towards gender-based violence such as the manner in which youngsters are raised.

“Young girls are groomed for marriage, to find a man and settle down. They are taught to be dependent on a man while men are taught to be independent,” she explained adding that she had also witnessed women marching outside court in support of perpetrators of abuse.

“How many times have you seen your brother or family member abusing their spouse and you have just kept quiet? Abuse needs to stop being a ‘family matter’ – it needs to reported and it needs to be dug out at the root,” she asserted.

Reuben Molelekoa, Newcastle’s deputy mayor, was also part of the campaign and described GBV as a pandemic.

“The fight against GBV should be a daily job. As men, we need to focus on ourselves. How do we raise our boys to becoming respectable men? We need to teach men that women are not objects…women are expected to behave in a certain way; they must not wear certain clothes so they are not ‘raped’ – they must be home at certain times because it is not safe for them; yet we are the perpetrators of these crimes,” claimed Molelekoa.

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