The Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Response Fund has called on South African men to take a stance against the scourge of GBVF in the country, marking Women’s Month during August.
Celebrations, campaigns and events organised to take place in this month pay homage to the more than 20 000 brave women who marched to the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956.
The march was undertaken in protest against pass laws, which mandated South Africans who were defined as black to carry a pass.
Lindi Dlamini, chief executive officer of the GBVF Response Fund, said the clarion call for men to take a firm stance against rooting out GBVF had been prompted by the increase in GBVF cases.
“Being on the sidelines is being an enabler of GBVF. We ask the men of South Africa to not be that guy – to take a stand, rise up to change and join the fight against GBVF,” said Dlamini.
“As we commemorate Women’s Month again this year, we need to turn our attention to the perpetrators of this stain on our society and encourage each other to play our part in ending GBVF in our lifetime.”
Dlamini said the call was further informed by the following factors, among others:
- A man kills a woman every three hours in South Africa.
- Every eight hours a man kills his intimate partner.
- Today, one in three men reading this will rape a woman.
- Men raped 11 315 women in the last three months of last year.
- South Africa has the highest rape rate in the world.
Dlamini said the commemoration of women since 1956 has evolved.
“In addition to maintaining the spirit of what Women’s Month first represented, we have also seen women from all walks of life being celebrated for a range of achievements – in the workplace, in the home and in other parts of society.”
The GBVF Response Fund was launched by Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa in February 2021.
The fund is a private sector-led initiative aimed at supporting the implementation of the new National Strategic Plan on GBVF. This is done by raising financial and non-financial resources and allocating these to high-impact organisations working to tackle the prevention of GBVF and ensuring support and access to justice for victims.