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01 November 2022 | Story Dr Claire Stephanie Westman | Photo Robyn Davie
Dr Claire Westman
Dr Claire Stephanie Westman, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Free State Centre for Human Rights
Opinion article by Dr Claire Stephanie Westman, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Free State Centre for Human Rights, University of the Free State.
The upcoming 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children is an annual international campaign, running from 25 November until 10 December, which aims to reinforce the call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls (VAWG). The South African Government explains that “the 16 Days Campaign forms the centre point of government’s comprehensive 365 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children”, and forms part of a so-called emergency response to the scourge of gender-based violence in South Africa.

However, despite these calls to end gender-based and sexual violence, it is clear that violence against women and girls continues unabated, not only in South Africa, but worldwide. Focusing on the South African context, between October and December of 2021, 11 315 people, primarily women and girls, were raped. This amounts to more than 11 000 reported cases of rape within a period of only three months (SAPS). However, according to the Rape Survivor’s Justice Campaign, approximately only 7,7% of sexual offences are reported, thus putting the actual number of sexual offence cases at an estimated 645 580 per year. In addition, there are on average 2 763 murders of women in South Africa a year, which is approximately 7 women per day. This places South Africa in the top five countries in the world regarding femicide. 

Understanding gender-based violence

While such violence may seem to be simply one manifestation of other ‘forms’ of violence, it is necessary to understand that gender-based violence, particularly sexual violence, is used as a means of social control. It is used to control the movement and behaviour of women, as well as to uphold patriarchal and heteronormative norms and ideologies. This social control is especially ‘effective’ in a country like South Africa, where GBV and sexual violence occur at alarming rates and where such violence is often enacted very publicly and graphically (as seen particularly in cases of lesbo-phobic rape). The extremely violent and public nature of many rapes serves to not only violate and harm the individual victims/survivors of rape, but also serves to remind all women that they are vulnerable to such violence. Rape, as such, becomes a very effective means through which to ‘keep women in check’ and often leads to them changing their behaviour or movements so as to avoid such violence. As Pumla Gqola explains, the constant threat of violence reminds women that “they are not safe and that their bodies are not entirely theirs”. As such, it can be understood that GBV and sexual violence are, in a way, systematically and strategically used to uphold dominant forms of power and perpetuate ideologies related to sex and gender. 

Of course, this is not a problem isolated to the South African context. According to the United Nations, “VAWG remains the most widespread and pervasive human rights violation, worldwide affecting more than an estimated one in three women, a figure that has remained largely unchanged over the past decade. The most recent global estimates showed that, on average, a woman or girl is killed by someone in her own family every 11 minutes.”

What is clear, is that we cannot rely on ineffective and often-patriarchal justice systems in order to address GBV or to protect women and girls from the scourge. Consequently, the theme for this year’s 16 Days of Activism campaign is ‘UNITE! Activism to end violence against women and girls.’ Related to this theme is the United Nations Secretary-General’s UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women campaign (UNiTE campaign). This multi-year campaign ‘calls for global actions to increase awareness, galvanise advocacy efforts, and share knowledge and innovations.’ While legal frameworks, effective justice systems, and serious government responses to VAWG are incredibly necessary, it is also vital that the ideologies that create the conditions in which VAWG flourishes and is often even condoned, must be addressed. For this, awareness, education, accountability, and activism are necessary.

Support and advocacy

In South Africa, there are many organisations, including POWA, Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust, and the TEARS Foundation (among many others) that work tirelessly to provide support and advocacy to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. For example, Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust reports that between March 2021 and March 2022, “9 650 survivors and their supporters received direct services from Rape Crisis. This support was provided across our helplines, in-person counselling, court support, social work sessions, community workshops and the three Thuthuzela Care Centres in which we work.” Such support and advocacy work are not only vital in helping survivors access post-violence medical and mental health support, but also in filing police reports, accessing courts, and receiving support throughout legal proceedings. Furthermore, such organisations provide education that helps to address toxic gender ideologies and debunk myths around rape and sexual violence.

However, we should not solely rely on organisations to do this work. We all need to be aware of our own actions and words and the ways in which they might contribute to a culture in which VAWG is acceptable; call out the behaviour and actions of others; assist those organisations providing support and advocacy in whatever way we can; and hold the government accountable for developing and implementing plans and procedures for addressing violence against women and girls in South Africa. 

Perhaps, however, it is also time that we take to the streets – as we are seeing in Iran – to demand better conditions for women, girls, and other marginalised communities in South Africa. We need to UNITE to create a country in which women and girls have a future that is free from the ever-present threat of violence. We need to demand an effective justice system that holds (primarily) men accountable for their actions. We need to make it clear that we will no longer allow the complacency and lack of urgency shown by the government in addressing VAWG. We need to UNITE in demanding a country that is safe for women and girls!

News Archive

Address by the first Inaugural President of the Central SRC
2005-08-03


 

The UFS Central SRC

Address by the first Inaugural President of the Central SRC of the University of the Free State, Mr Tello Motloung on Wednesday 3 August 2003

The Chairperson of the UFS Council, Judge Faan Hancke,
The Vice-chancellor and Rector of the UFS, Prof Frederick Fourie
The Vice-Rector Student Affairs of the UFS, Dr Ezekiel Moraka
The Presidents of the main campus SRC and the Vista campus SRC
Colleagues in the Central SRC, campus SRCs, students and fellow South Africans

Please receive my heartfelt revolutionary greetings

Vice-chancellor and rector what I bring here with me assisted by facts, is just the work of my imagination. Like a love letter addressed to a sweetheart miles away, even though you do not know how she feels, what she wants to hear, and do not even know what she looks like.

I value speech as just an honest intimation, that’s why I got into a habit of establishing a dialogue with people, looking at each other’s face, and persuading one another of what we are saying.

Vice-chancellor, today marks an important milestone in the history of the existence of the UFS. Today reflects the confidence and trust that students of the UFS have placed in us. They are confident that the Central SRC has both the will and the capacity to take our university forward as we confront the challenge of transformation.

Students are confident that they are correct to trust the Central SRC as the principal agent of change in our university that is genuinely committed to the objective of building a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic university. We need to frankly ask ourselves, as CSRC members, whether are we up to all these challenges?

All Central SRC members have to understand this fully, internalize it, and ensure that everything we do, does not betray the confidence and trust of students, or disappoint their expectations. I say this knowing that all Central SRC members have committed themselves to serve the students of the UFS, black and white, and no one among us (CSRC) needs any special lectures about this central commitment.

The UFS should be an omnibus, welcoming everybody on board. But we should be a bus with a clear direction. We will certainly lose our way if we, as an institution, don’t have a clear road map spelling out where we are heading to.

There should be clear guidelines on the role of students in the transformation process. Students should also be viewed as role players in transformation along with the University management, and not just opposing forces. There is no right time, other than this one, to move away from the politics of opposition to politics of transformation.

However, we need the support of management to do so. The University should value the role and contribution of student leaders, hear our legitimate claims and consider them as part of political and policy decision making.
     
Vice-chancellor and Rector, it remains our task to ensure that the UFS is transformed into an institution that is seen to be playing a vigilant role in developing students academically, intellectually, socially, culturally, politically and otherwise. The process of transformation is not ending tonight, it is just beginning tonight.

Judge Hancke, Prof Fourie, Dr Moraka, fellow students and fellow South Africans, I lead students at this university with a sense of pride and duty, and I know very well that I lead men and women, students who are all determined that we reach our destination safely and on time.

A navy divided within its ranks will be destroyed and vanquished by the enemy, but the navy united in purpose and action, loyalty and commitment will not sink but sail on to victory.

It is befitting to mention that every drop of my blood is telling me that the UFS is my home. I firstly became a student here, I became the SRC treasurer in my first year here, I became the deputy president here, and I became the first president of the Central SRC of the UFS.

Therefore you should never doubt my commitment towards the transformation of this university. To paraphrase what was said by students at another institution, “If there is no UFS in heaven, then I am not going.”

Let me conclude by thanking my ancestors for teaching me that even if I wined and dined with kings and queens, I am not a king myself, so I should not turn my back on people who made me what I am today.

Most importantly, I would like to thank the Almighty God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for giving me time and power to lead this university.

It will be theoretically irresponsible if I ended my speech without indicating that “Only a Kovsie knows the feeling”.

I thank you.

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