Publications
Partners
The list of names of women murdered in South Africa is frighteningly long – and relentlessly growing.
The scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) is underscored by statistics that are so horrific they seem unreal, like something out of a horror movie. According to the SA Police Service, 2 695 women are murdered every year in South Africa – that’s one woman every three hours.
In our country, every day is Halloween for women, which is the basis of the Every Day is Halloween for Women campaign, created to coincide with Halloween. The campaign acknowledges the daily horrors faced by many women and children in the country, using the familiar plot of horror movies such as Friday the 13th, Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street. All these films feature monstrous men who (mostly) prey on women.
However, the reality in South Africa is far scarier – women and children are more often than not preyed on not by monsters, but by their own intimate partners and family members.
The Every Day is Halloween for Women campaign kicks off with an audience invited to watch locally produced horror movie trailer Every Day is Halloween. Watch the trailer here:
The trailer stars Ayanda Borotho, who is best known for portraying Phumelele Zungu (one of Mpiyakhe Zungu’s wives) in the award-winning telenovela, Isibaya.
The trailer starts off with eery music and a scene shot with a shaky hand-held camera. The sense of danger becomes real when the woman and her young daughter are attacked in their lounge. Later, the woman and her daughter are seen being pursued by a perpetrator as the woman drives away, swerving uncontrollably while looking over her shoulder in the hopes of getting away.
With no help or refuge, in the final scene, the child (left alone at the side of the road) calls out to her mother, with no response – all that is left is the deafening life-ending silence that is a reality for so many women in South Africa.
The campaign’s second leg reveals the truth about the campaign and begins with an updated version of the trailer, now titled Every Day is Halloween for Women.
However, instead of finding a horror film, the audience is confronted with the harrowing statistics that tally the brutal killings of South African women, concluding with the campaign message that every day is Halloween for women, as well as a video honouring the life of 19-year-old university student Uyinene Mrwetyana, who was brutally raped and murdered in 2019.
As part of the campaign, BoxOffice is calling on all South Africans to take a stand against GBV by donating to the Uyinene Mrwetyana Foundation (UMF).
According to folklore, on Halloween, the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead is thin. In what has been depicted over the years in many sinister stories, Halloween allowed the souls of the dead to come back to Earth and walk among the living, with devastating consequences.
While Halloween is a fun time to trick or treat for many around the world, thousands of women in our country would be terrified to open their doors to a stranger.
According to the study Mortality of Women From Intimate Partner Violence in South Africa: A National Epidemiological Study, women killed in incidents of intimate partner violence in 1999 were murdered by blunt force trauma, sharp objects, firearms, strangulation, burns, drowning and asphyxiation – therefore, a scary movie portraying this type of violence is shockingly and unfortunately not too far from the true reality for so many women in South Africa.
The Every Day is Halloween for Women trailer is available on BoxOffice from today. Donations can be made on BoxOffice when a customer selects Every Day is Halloween.
For more content, click on the Rent Now button and follow the steps to make payment. All proceeds go to the UMF, with DStv BoxOffice matching donations from the public.
BoxOffice is available to DStv customers with an Explora or Explora Ultra decoder, and is also available online to DStv customers and non-customers.
. Visit https://now.dstv.com/movies?filter=boxoffice to rent and stream.
. Every Day is Halloween For Women is only available in South Africa.
. Should you or a friend need assistance, the Gender-Based Violence Command Centre operates an emergency line on 080 042 8428 or send a “please call me” to *120*7867#.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
