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South Africa’s Changed Approach To Violence Against Women

On Wednesday, September 18th, 2019 the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, gave an address on the growing gender violence problem, at parliament. More properly called, Joint Sitting: South Africa’s Changed Approach to Violence Against Women; and surprisingly, your girl was able to finesse her way into it!

The organization I’m working for, PASSOP (People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty) had planned to send one of the interns to parliament to sit in on the speech because he was a politics major and really interested. I, however, am just an extremely curious and persistent coworker and joked that I needed to accompany him if he were to get lost. I hadn’t brought a proper ID and was stopped at the door because the copy of my passport was not good enough, luckily I had brought my Student ID from my time in China and that paired with my passport copy seemed to do the trick. They were kind enough to give me another ticket to represent PASSOP and the next thing we knew we were sitting in the center of the first-row balcony of the National Assembly Chamber watching the president explain the current epidemic and the emergency plan they were going to enact to address the problem.

My first week had been so incredibly rough, because of the huge adjustment I had to make with safety in Cape Town. Growing up I always imagined South Africa to be a really developed place that was to the same standards as my home in the USA. I used to have aspirations to move here when I was younger, and now I look back at those perceptions and realize how naive I was to the state of the country. The entire first week I was stuck in my dorm without the freedom to go out and explore on my own. In addition to having just moved here, I hadn’t made any friends yet so things like getting groceries safely on my own were even a challenge. I quickly felt isolated and lonely, to the point where I wanted to just go home. When you don’t feel safe in the area you’re in, it affects everything. That change in freedom for the first week kept me from all my routine activities like morning runs, evening hikes, or exploring unknown areas. I felt very much not like myself, and the change in my opportunities to even get physical exercise also took a toll on my mental health. With all of this in mind, when I finally had a chance to leave the office and go to parliament I was very wide-eyed and not sure what to expect, I didn’t even 100% know what we were going to until it started.

The joint sitting started with the president giving an overall speech on the problems South Africa currently faces regarding gender violence. Ridiculous statistics of 114 cases of sexual assault being reported a day with only 5% of those cases resulting in an arrest. They spoke of the way the police handle these situations and how girls are often just sent back to the homes when they go and try to report cases of rape and abuse. Lack of funding in these areas results in an inability to provide proper medical rape test kits for those who fall victim. Lack of strong police infrastructure, with the educational background on how to talk to and help victims of sexual assault results in an endless cycle of inaction and hopelessness.

The president then went on to talk about the new initiatives, part of their emergency plan to immediately address this problem in the next 1- 6 months. At the start, they plan to change the laws and policies that outline how they punish those who commit sexual assault. Next, more funding will be put towards law enforcement and training on what to do if someone reports a case of sexual assault. Furthermore, there will be more educational programs put in place in the schooling of South African children in an attempt to cut the problem off from upstream and educate boys and girls on assault and consent.

Afterward, a representative from each party in government sent up a single representative to give their stance on the current problem as well as concrete ideas on what needs to be done to improve the state of the country. I absolutely loved seeing all of the different parties present and the diversity of leadership was refreshing as compared to the standard bipartisan policies I’m familiar with in the states.

Overall, every party I heard, spoke with the same urgency and determination of fixing the gender violence issue. It was not a question as to whether or not this was a severe problem, but more so a time to evaluate statistics and discuss where funding could be drawn from and what certain laws needed to be changed. Even more interesting was the presentation of certain philosophies and viewpoints as to how this mindset in the country came to be.

South Africa has a long history of oppression by both the Dutch and English, and during one part of Ramaphosa’s speech, he spoke about how during these times, Africans had an idea of where their place was in society. Ending Apartheid required Africans to change their mindset on what their place was in the world and what they had the ability to do. He believes that ending gender violence also requires a change in the mindset of Africans and what their rights and life can be. After suffering from years of oppression, a mentality of toxic masculinity has built up in the men of South Africa over the years. In African communities, especially those living in townships, it is common for men to feel the need to express their strength and dominance by lashing out and forcing themselves on women. I found it really interesting to see the dots connect between oppression, poverty, and violence.

It is not a secret that South Africa has a violence issue. Another statistic brought up was that the ratio of policemen for every civilian was 1: 375, while for a member of parliament the ratio of secret service was something like 71: 1. Comedians like Trevor Noah joke about not fearing the police in South Africa as compared to the United States, but the issue is that people don’t fear breaking the law. Rape, armed robbery, violent crimes are all very common even in the day here, because people know that the police won’t do anything.

There was also mention on the current issue of Xenophobia, the irrational fear of people from outside of your own country entering. Many terrible events have been happening to immigrants from Nigeria in Johannesburg. The government has condemned these acts and noted how the continuation of this mindset will put the country back into the mindset of apartheid. As someone who works directly with refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants in South Africa it’s started to give me a better understanding of the conditions of war, violence, and economic hardship these displaced groups go through as well as the conditions the government has to consider in order to handle the increase in migrants.

South Africa has been the most dangerous country I’ve lived in thus far with many different problems than I’ve seen compared to other countries. The split that exists between wealthy tourist areas and the rest of Cape Town alone demonstrates just how big the gap is between the safety, wealth, and opportunity of many citizens.

Originally published at https://jacquroman.wixsite.com on September 25, 2019.