Zuko Komisa
The first South African National Gender-Based Violence Prevalence Study: A Baseline Survey on Victimisation and Perpetration report conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) released on Monday, revealed that about 7 310 389 million women, aged 18 years and older, have experienced physical violence in their lifetime.
Furthermore, the study also found that 9.8% of all women reported experiencing sexual violence during their lifetime.
This translated to an estimated 2 150 342 women who have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.
According to Steve Letsike, Deputy Minister for Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities, the power dynamics between men and women lead to violations of women.
He said males have been socialized to believe that they have a right to women’s labor, time, bodies, and other resources.
“There is no competition between men and women, but men have to understand that they do not have the right over women’s bodies, that must be understood. You can be partners, you can share equality, you can share finances, but there is nothing that justifies having to violate another person, especially women… it is criminal in our country,”
“We have a big task. We cannot fail women of this country, not 30 years later… we can do better. We have to enhance and strengthen our monitoring and accountability mechanism. ”
We are also going to integrate our gender-based violence (GBV) intervention into broader social policies, not forgetting some of the correlation of HIV, and [also] look at some of the economic equality including the gaps in education that is also linked to the drivers of violation,” Letsike said.
