News
By Lyn van Rooyen*
“Wathint' abafazi,
wathint' imbokodo.”
As South Africa grapples with a gender-based violence crisis, president Cyril Ramaphosa is convening, on 18 September, the entire parliament for a special session on how to create a society in which women feel not only safe, but enjoy human rights equal to men. With 52,420 sexual offences reported in the last financial year - and many unreported - hundreds of thousands of people in South Africa are publicly saying “#EnoughIsEnough.” Churches and faith communities are a vocal, visible part of this call for change. Will the momentum grow? Will we stand with the women of South Africa?
On 9 August 1956, as many as 20 thousand women from all over South Africa marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Black women, joined by women from all backgrounds, races, and different communities protested the expansion of Apartheid "Pass Laws" to women. They handed over thousands of petitions and then stood in silence. For 30 minutes no one moved. And then they started singing "Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo." They warned then Prime Minister Strydom that '[When] you strike the women, you strike a rock.'
This act of protest and solidarity is so important in the history of South Africa that 9 August is a public holiday, and the whole of August is known as "Women's Month."
The month is filled with events and activities, and of course, the retail industry capitalises on this. Pink champagne and perfume, pink balloons and roses, high teas and wine tastings, spa visits and pretty nails . . . We are wished 'happy women's day.'
And every day, in Women's Month and every other month, women are beaten, raped, and murdered.
South Africa is often referred to as "the rape capital of the world." Although this is in many ways a nonsensical statement, it reveals a deeper truth. South Africa's crime statistics for 2018-2019 indicate that 52,420 sexual offences were reported in the past financial year, an increase of 4.6%. This means that an average of 143 sexual offences is reported per day. Still, we are told that sexual offences are widely underreported. Some researchers say that this rate could be as much as nine times higher. A KPMG study estimated that gender-based violence costs the country over R28 billion per annum, amounting to 1% of the gross domestic product.
Except for a few prominent and high-profile cases, the disappearance, rape, murder, and assault of women and children do not even make the front pages of newspapers.
Civil society and women's organisations have not been quiet. For many years there have been marches and protests but little has changed.
The winds of change
And then it was Women's Month 2019.
- The chopped-up body of a 32-year-old woman was found stuffed in dustbin bags in a neighbour's flat
- A 36-year-old doctor died after being shot in the head in front of her three children by her estranged husband
- Boxing champion Leighandre "Baby Lee" Jegels, was shot and killed by her policeman ex-boyfriend
- A young theology student and her grandfather were murdered in their home
- A seven-year-old was kidnapped as her mother walked her into school
- University of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana disappeared. Days later, the story broke – she was raped in her local post office by a post-office worker when picking up a parcel. When she resisted, she was bludgeoned to death with a post office scale.
And something shifted in the collective psyche of the women of South Africa. It is as if the spirit of 1956 woke up.
Thousands of women started commenting on social media. Women saying #MeToo, #AmINext, #SAWomenFightBack, #EnoughIsEnough, #MenAreTrash
Hundreds of students attended a vigil at the University of Cape Town for Uyinene. This rippled out to other universities. University students came together in prayer events, protests and meetings. Students started sharing their stories of abuse and of rape culture prevalent on the campuses.
On 5 September, thousands of protesters gathered outside the parliament in Cape Town and outside the convention centre where the World Economic Forum on Africa (#AF19) was taking place. President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was scheduled to speak at #AF19 was compelled to change his schedule and listen to the cries of the protesters. He promised that government would act swiftly and decisively. Incidents of police reacting to this peaceful protest with violence created even more concern about the role of the police in violence against women and about the poor handling and poor outcomes of reported cases.
Facebook groups proliferated. One women’s-only group (secret to protect the stories and identities of victims) grew in days to 50,000, then to 100,000, 150,000 and in less than a month to more than 200,000 members. This group is filled by story after story – women saying over and over “I have never spoken about this before.”
Petitions were drawn up - calling for action, calling for accountability, calling for an overhaul of the justice system, calling for support for victims, calling for no bail, no parole for rapist and perpetrators of femicide, calling for return of the death sentence (one pro-death sentence petition received more than 580,000 signatures in a week).
Growing demand for justice
Schools started responding. Pupils from an all-boys school stood in solidarity in front of the local convent with banners and placards promising their support and that they will speak out against all forms of abuse and violence. The boys of Bracken High School in Alberton, Ekurhuleni, pledged “I will be the man that people run to, not run from.”
Groups of women started getting together, in upmarket suburbs, on street corners in townships, at rural street crossings: ten women, twenty women, women and children, with placards and with their voices, calling out for change.
Churches and faith communities became vocal and visible. Many denominations and congregations arranged special prayer events and brought out statements lamenting the levels of violence. Faith leaders wrote searching articles challenging how unhealthy theologies and unhealthy masculinities contribute to a situation where women and women's bodies are disrespected and devalued. A group of forty female church leaders and theologians from the Dutch Reformed Church brought out a strongly-worded statement challenging patriarchy and unhealthy theology as core drivers of abuse against women. They called patriarchy within the church a “disease of the soul” that directly contradicts the gospel of Jesus.
There is a call for a different narrative. People start asking why we say “a woman was raped” instead of “someone/a man raped a woman”, why the dress, behaviour or movements of the victims are questioned, rather than the violence of the perpetrator, why the perpetrator is silent in the narrative, but the action of the victims, mostly women and children, are in the centre. Even the iconic “Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo” is questioned, and men are reminded that women are not rocks, that when struck, women bleed and bruise.
Hitting the economic heart
On Friday 13 September the struggle was taken to the heart of the economic life of the country. Thousands of people met beginning at 3 am at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in Sandton for #SandtonShutdown. As one of the protest planners said: “We are going to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange [because that’s] where the money is. We want to show the government that it cannot be business as usual while women are dying.” They met at that unusual hour so that they could be in place when people arrived for work and could disrupt the normal course of business. Many businesses gave female employees leave to join the protest and businesses even shut down to allow employees to participate in the protest. Protesters called out the silence and complicity of business in sexual and gender-based violence and called for a 2% “GBV tax” from companies listed on JSE to support the civil society response. The CEO of the JSE promised a response within a week.
Marches and protests in support were held by South African expatriates and supporters in Dublin, London, Paris and many other parts of the world.
Black dress was central in many of these events and activities. Many people committed and recommitted to the #ThursdaysinBlack campaign, and there was a significant rise in the use of the hashtag on social media. Even when people were not explicitly aware of the campaign, black and purple was the choice of dress of many protesters, and many women in South Africa have been wearing black consistently over the last few weeks as a symbol of mourning and solidarity.
The government had no choice but to respond. Ramaphosa has continued to speak out in the last two weeks at events and in a church service, admitting that the situation is severe and untenable, calling on men to change their behaviour and to challenge each other.
South Africa’s Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola last week decried the failure of the justice system and said more than 65% of cases related to sexual offences were withdrawn prior to trial. It was also reported that in the six months from April to September 2018, 55 policemen were investigated for rape. The number of police officers involved in femicide, domestic violence and family murders is also a reason for concern.
In an unusual move, Ramaphosa summoned the two houses of parliament, the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces, to an emergency sitting on 18 September to address gender-based violence. This is also one of the reasons given why he cancelled his planned visit to the UN General Assembly. Presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko was quoted as saying “The president has decided to remain in South Africa to attend to the implementation of government’s urgent measures on gender-based violence, the restoration of order and stability in areas affected by public violence and to oversee initiatives to turn around the economy.”
Building a wall of resistance
The responses of government and civil society are encouraging. However, in spite of the many of thousands of words written, the thousands activities and events, many women echo the words of journalist and author Marianne Thamm who wrote at the end of Women's Month of the 'Unstoppable horror' and ask the collective question "what are we to do with the rage?."
Many fear that the movement that grew over the last month will fade again, like every hashtag, every 16 days campaign and every other flavour-of-the-month.
But there is hope that maybe this time it is different, maybe this time the momentum will continue to grow, maybe the walls of silence have been permanently broken wide open, maybe the spirit of the women of 1956 is truly alive, maybe the rocks that have been dug from the broken soil will be used to build a wall of resistance that cannot be broken down.
Civil society organisations are committed to keep government accountable for their promises and commitments and to follow up and support victims and survivors through the legal and healing process. Lawyers, doctors, psychologists and therapists are offering pro-bono support. Restaurants and business are putting “Come-In” logos on their doors and windows, inviting any women feeling unsafe to come in and promising to wait with them for transport and support them in other ways necessary. Many stories are told of survivors encouraging and supporting each other, of South Africans crossing boundaries to help each other and to challenge perpetrators of violence and rape culture.
As they speak out, women are asking difficult questions of the church, of society, of the world: Will we speak out against abuse within our many spaces? Will we expose the ways in which our sacred texts have been used to perpetuate patriarchy and unhealthy masculinities and femininities? Will we be brave enough to forge a pilgrimage of justice and peace also in the difficult and contested terrain of gender relations? Will we stand with the women of South Africa?
Just Community of Women and Men
*Lyn van Rooyen is a communication and organizational consultant based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
