MEC NOMANDLA BLOEM KEYNOTE ADDRESS

STOP GBV PROGRAMME

24 MAY 2023

 

Programme Director

District Mayor Cllr Queen Mogatle

Provincial Commissioner Lt Gen Koliswa Otola

Traditional and Spiritual Leadership present

Community Police Forum Leadership

Our sister Departments, stakeholders and all partners

The community of Batlharos

It is an honour for me to be here with you today. Whenever we come together to discuss and engage on what is now termed as a pandemic – Gender Based Violence & Femicide (GBV&F) we need to reflect the cross-cutting and intersectional vulnerabilities at the heart of this scourge.

We must face issues of violence against the youth, the LGBTQIA+ community and persons with disabilities, in particular women and children with disabilities. We must think of the realities of violence and abuse experienced by women pushed to the periphery of society – of women migrant and farm workers, rural women, black women who are our mothers, sisters and daughters.

We need to, in every town and village, use every platform to generate a heightened level of awareness on the devastating effect and impact of gender-based violence and femicide on our society.

We know, as activists, leaders and members of communities, that social empowerment is fundamental to women achieving and fully enjoying their human rights. However, women’s ability to do this is hampered by patriarchal practices and negative social norms. We may even argue that it is worse in especially more rural spaces.

Economic empowerment is one of the most powerful routes for women to achieve their potential and advance their rights. It promotes women's ability to reduce household poverty, hunger and food insecurity, as well as reducing the heightened levels of inequalities they face on a daily basis. Women’s economic resilience will enable them to walk away from situations that make them vulnerable to GBVF, and to take control of their own lives and that of their children.

We have many stakeholders here today - to be able to Collaborate, Connect and Contract is to allow agency to women to come together to improve socio-economic conditions, to challenge status quo economies and supply chains, and to network, grow forces, to improve market participation, and to insert themselves into values chains in all industries and sectors even in local economies.

Our Cabinet has approved a tagline: Enough Is Enough. We need a comprehensive behavioural change campaign that not only focus on issues of patriarchy and toxic masculinity, but also address linkages between poverty, inequality, substance abuse and the expression of violence and aggression against women and children.

We must all take concrete actions to ensure safer families and safer communities. We must not turn a blind eye to the cries of help from the most vulnerable in our midst. The culture of bystanderism must stop. We must report all cases of assault, abuse and harassment. We must stop thinking it is normal when a man beats his wife or daughter. It is the responsibility of all South Africans to end the culture of silence around gender-based violence and report perpetrators to the police.

All of us, whether in our communities or in our homes must do all we can to promote and protect the rights of women and children. We want a society free from any sort of violence targeted at women and young girls, or the LGBTIQIA+ Community.

We have a National Strategic Plan on GBVF that wants to see South Africa free from gender based violence directed at women, youth, children, persons with disabilities and LGBTQIA+ persons. Creating places where they feel safe and free from fear of crime - to be safe at home, at school, at work, and enjoy an active community life free from all forms of fear. To see women walk freely in the streets and children playing safely outside. 

The rape and killing is like a festering wound on the face of our national identity. It is no secret that we have one of the most elevated levels of GBV worldwide. It is something we are known for. This is horrifyingly tragic.

Couple this with elements of hatred and intolerance towards minority groups like the LGBTI community, and we see the kind of rape and burning of black queer bodies that we have seen in Kimberley not so long ago.

We need men and women who understand the true meaning of words such as honesty and integrity, and who have respect for the rights of others. We need to foster greater religious tolerance and cooperation for moral renewal. In the times we are living we cannot have the church turning its face away when women and girls are hurt in homes.

We also need to look at what Moral Regeneration means and what the values are that we hold, whether religious or cultural, that causes harm and even instigates hate and violence against certain citizens of our country.

Men and women here today must ask themselves what is it that they think of women? How do they view women as people and as members of the society? How do these views and attitudes shape their behaviours towards women?

After this, and closer to home, men must ask themselves what do they think of their own place in the house and community with regards to women and how we may work to foster greater equality and promote safety and healthier relationships, homes, workplaces and communities. What is masculinity and what is manhood – how do these answers shape the fact that men believe they naturally have rights over the bodies, movement and will of a woman?

Men and boys must form part of our programmes and must voice out condemnation of acts of violence and harassment on open platforms and within our homes. We must shift away from toxic masculinities towards embracing positive alternative approaches for expressing masculinities and other sexual and gender identities.

My call goes out to you to take hands with community structures and the police, so we break the shame and the silence of violence and report these crimes as and where they occur. We are not only protecting the lives of our women and children but safeguarding their dignity and futures.

There is nothing more powerful than a community that has decided to participate in power against crime, rather than remain the victims of it. Just so, we call upon the police and CPF structures, neighbours and members of the community to be vigilant for any signs of violence in our homes and to report it. When it is reported we need to act swiftly and decisively.

We have a long way to go in the fight against gender-based violence in our communities. I know, however, that we are starting to win the fight against the shame of violence that has kept us silent for years. Our voices need to rise in power with the realization that we, as women and girl children, are worthy, proud members of our society deserving of care, love and respect.  

God Bless You