South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, at a summit on gender-based violence in the country, said murders of women jumped by 50% this year and called for action to stop the trend. Experts say his government\u2019s efforts are falling short.
\n\u201cIt is a story of a nation that is seemingly at war with itself \u2026 a nation that is at war with the women of this country and the children of this country,\u201d Ramaphosa said this week as he addressed the summit.
\nNational police reported 1,753 women were murdered in just the first half of this year.
\nM, whose name is being withheld for her safety, said she thought she\u2019d become one of those statistics when her ex-boyfriend imprisoned her and her daughter in his apartment for months.
\n\u201cI had to beg for my life,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then I told him, \u2018You know what, I\u2019ll never ever annoy you with the thing of wanting to go home. You know what, you can do whatever you want to do with me. I’m all yours. Please, please spare me my life because I still have daughter to raise.\u2019\u201d
\nM had met her boyfriend online. She said at first, he was sweet, and the relationship was ordinary.
\nBut once she had been staying with him for a prolonged period, he turned on her and became violent, subjecting her to physical and sexual abuse.
\nM said she later learned she wasn\u2019t his only victim.
\n\u201cI even discovered that he had murdered another girl,\u201d she said, \u201cHe murdered his girlfriend, his previous girlfriend. There are other victims that he had. \u2026 So, I was not the second [survivor of abuse], I was not the third. Maybe he\u2019s been doing that, and then I was the next victim. He was going to kill me also and then get another victim.\u201d
\nM and her daughter are now safely staying at a women\u2019s shelter.
\nThey had managed to escape in July when her partner forgot his cellphone at home, giving her a rare opportunity to call the police.
\nAs she waits for her case to make it to the courts, M said she wants other women like her to know there is help available.
\nVanita Daniels, administrative director for the nonprofit Rise Up Against Gender-Based Violence, said there are droves of women seeking help.
\n\u201cWe are almost five times the international average for femicide \u2014 it\u2019s horrendous, those numbers,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a cause for great concern, especially when we are not, you know, a war-torn country. We\u2019ve had survivors that had to leave their homes with absolutely nothing except the clothes on their backs. And so, they go into a shelter space, and they need everything.\u201d
\nDespite it being four years since the inaugural presidential summit on gender-based violence, nonprofits supporting survivors say there are still shortfalls in funding and resources from government to meet those needs.
\n\u201cWe on the ground are asking the president what has gone wrong,\u201d said Lisha Stevens, a social worker with Nisaa Institute for Women\u2019s Development in Johannesburg.
\n\u201cWhere have they not assisted? Why are they not reaching a minimum target in gender-based violence deaths? Government needs to intervene, give us a budget, so that we can equip and empower these women.\u201d
\nBoth experts agree that in addition to supporting women fleeing violence, there need to be greater efforts to prevent it in the first place.
\nDaniels said that requires a societal overhaul in how men and women are treated and valued.
\n\u201cOne of the things that we are not tackling in this country effectively is issues around culture, issues around religion, issues around harmful patriarchal practice,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so, one of the things that we do as an organization, we do behavioral change programs, and we work specifically with men because we believe in prevention.\u201d
\nWomen\u2019s rights advocates say laws and policies have improved to protect survivors and that the next step is better enforcement.<\/p>\n
Source: Voice of America<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"