By: Monelisi Sigabi
Executive Director of Masimanyane Women’s Rights Dr Lesley-Ann Foster said job losses, food insecurity and the inability to provide basic services like education had a major impact on the rise of gender-based violence during the lockdown period.
“The immobility of people especially women during the lockdown period to go seek help at a facility or police station to report a crime had a profound impact on women as they were left in isolation with their partners,” said Dr Foster.
Speaking in a media briefing, Dr Foster added that there is a decline in domestic violence and rape due to the alcohol ban but they saw an increase in incest with children and spousal rape.
The Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture MEC, Fezeka Nkomonye, also Chairperson of the Gender Machinery in the province whom earlier visited a safe house in East London to interact with victims and survivors of gender-based violence discussed how best the government can work with NGO’s to deal with the plague of gender-based violence and femicide in the province.
“As a government we need to take the strategies of behavioural change, targeting boy-children and men so it doesn’t become our burden to protect ourselves as women, but becomes the burden of men to stop what they are doing,” said Nkomonye.
Nkomonye added that although the justice system is failing to address issues related to gender-based violence in the province, they have incorporated the justice sector by forming a multi-sectoral team where you get a social worker, detective and a police officer responding to a victim using SMS or WhatsApp and launched the pilot in the OR Tambo District.
Emotional gender-based violence victim and survivor whose identity is hidden for her protection recalled the past events of how the justice system continues to fail her. This after she was burned by her partner with her children, yet the victim is yet to receive a sentence.
“We went to the court but they kept postponing the case. I have not been to court in a while due to COVID-19 regulations. Now the perpetrator will appear alone in court in October this year, and the case was postponed in June,” she said.
It hasn’t been an easy journey for the victim as she still experiences bodily challenges because of her injuries and suffers from post-traumatic stress.
“I live in fear, I cannot even go home because I don’t know what his family and friends will do to me. I also have trouble doing my own laundry because my one hand isn’t functioning. There are certain items of clothing that I will never wear again because of my burns,” she expressed.
The victim has since been placed in a safe house by Masimanyane Women’s Support Centre.