EDITORIAL | More must be done if SA is to stop GBV and teen pregnancies

As SA marks the first week of 16 days of activism for no violence against women and children, figures released by the department of community safety show scores of people in Gauteng have committed suicide since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Domestic violence was listed as one of the top five reasons for the 1,325 suicides reported in the province since March last year. The others were depression, loss of income, financial difficulties and deaths of family members.

Without downplaying the latter, it is gut-wrenching that a large group of women felt their only escape from their abusers was to take their own lives.

On Saturday, TimesLIVE reported on the injuries suffered by women in shelters — severed ears, damaged kidneys, broken shoulders, the inability to walk unaided, public humiliation and sexual violence.

A few years ago, the publication ran a series of stories about women who said their only escape from their abusers was to kill them. This landed them in jail, some with life sentences.

Women killing others or themselves to end abuse paints a ghastly picture of a self-destructive society.

It begs the question whether the scores of awareness programmes, radio and television advertisements, offers of assistance or rehabilitation are reaching the right people?

The Labour Research Service says a good starting point in ending GBV is to recognise that women’s rights are human rights. But how does one change the mindset of those who believe a man is a man when he uses a hard hand against a woman? Several empowerment groups exist to teach young boys to be agents of change in their communities, yet incidents of young boys meting out violence are still extremely common. Can such attitudes be unlearnt? Will it take a generational cycle to stop GBV? Should children who have witnessed violence against their mothers be the ones targeted for rehabilitation?

One of the challenges in leaving abusive relationships cited by women in shelters is financial dependency on their abusers.

While the department of education and other government entities have tried to curtail this by introducing programmes such as Take a Girl Child To Work, which are meant to empower and expose young girls to future opportunities and independence, it is disheartening that the age of school girls falling pregnant is becoming younger and younger, entrapping them into a cycle of dependency on whoever supports the child. 

With all the educational programmes that exist, why have we not found a solution to this and GBV?

Clearly we are not doing enough.