Women’s Month: Join fight against gender-base violence
Everything you need to know about Women's Month.
Women’s Month in South Africa is commemorated in August annually as a tribute to the more than 20 000 women who marched to the Union Buildings on August 9, 1956.
The march was in protest against the extension of the Pass Laws to women.
According to the Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Response Fund, Women’s Month is also a period when awareness needs to be raised on GBVF, and motivation for urgent action in the fight against GBVF.
CEO of the GBVF Response Fund, Lindi Dlamini, said SA Women’s Month is traditionally a time when tribute is paid to more than 20 000 brave women who marched to the Union Buildings.
Dlamini said in the years since then, the commemorative day has evolved, saying that in addition to maintaining the spirit of what Women’s Month first represented, they have also seen women from all walks of life being celebrated for a range of achievements – in the workplace, in the home, and in other parts of society.
“When Covid-19 hit our shores, and we entered into two years of lockdown, the focus on women shifted again. This time, to conversations around the ‘second pandemic’ of GBVF. As we commemorate Women’s Month again this year, we need to turn our attention to the perpetrators of this stain on our society and encourage each other to play our parts in ending GBVF in our lifetimes,” said Dlamini.
She added that a man kills a woman every three hours in South Africa, saying that every eight hours a man kills his intimate partner.
Dlamini said one in three men reading this will rape a woman.
“Men raped 11 315 women in the last three months of last year. SA has the highest rape rate in the world. Being on the sidelines is being an enabler of GBVF. We ask the men of South Africa to not be that guy – to take a stand, rise up to change, and join the fight against GBVF,” said Dlamini.
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