Women's Day 2022

Sexual violence has agents and those agents are men with toxic masculinities. Government must stop talking about the scourge of violence as though it is ...

On Women’s Day we should think back to those women who marched to the Union Buildings in 1956 with a clear focus on women’s rights. In the absence of progress with rape, the ANC Women’s League developed a very misplaced policy to deal with perpetrators – that of chemical castration. The government keeps talking about the scourge of violence as though the violence is visited upon us by unknown forces like the plague. Even when rapists are chemically castrated, they can still violate women with objects such as sticks and bottles – a clear indication that it is not about sexual desire. The National Strategic Plan on Gender Based Violence and Femicide is one such effort to provide a holistic policy. Where is the holistic view, the strategy, the priorities to help ALL rape survivors? Putting the focus on perpetrators as foreigners contributes to the discourse that foreigners rape. The rape victims are now a footnote to this story. But for years those of us who are feminists have been saying the same thing – no progress is being made with the creation of gender equality and that gender-based violence (GBV) is out of control. Many people made the allegations on radio that the police are in cahoots with the zama zamas. “As we see Ralph’s hold over the other boys weaken and crumble until he is cast out and hunted, the story seems to be showing us that humanity’s violent and savage impulses are more powerful than civilisation, which is inherently fragile. Ralph and Jack (and the boys who align themselves with each) represent different values and different aspects of human nature.