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- President Cyril Ramaphosa has punted new legislation in the government's efforts to stem the abuse of women.
- AfriForum, however, has challenged state efficiency by highlighting a brutal domestic violence case against a woman after giving birth.
- Sophie de Bruyn, the surviving leader from the iconic August 1956 women's march, has called for practical measures to end gender-based violence.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, calling the 11 women killed daily in South Africa "an assault on our humanity", has backed expected Parliamentary laws as a way of ending the scourge of gender-based violence.
Delivering his Women's Day address at Pretoria's Union Buildings on Wednesday, Ramaphosa said the government had "made progress" since the 2019 adoption of the National Strategic Plan, which birthed the Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Bill currently before Parliament.
The official opposition DA, meanwhile, said it was "tired of platitudes", and demanded to know why women were being killed "under an uncaring government".
Wednesday's public holiday honours the 9 August 1956 march by about 20 000 women to the Union Buildings to challenge the repressive laws enacted under the apartheid regime.
The Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Bill closed its public consultation phase in June. It stemmed from shocking violence statistics, the latest of which show that, in the first three months of 2023, 11 women were killed, 17 attempted murders of women were reported, and 118 rapes occurred daily in South Africa.
READ | Legislation to beef up fight against gender-based violence, welcomed by activists
The progress Ramaphosa alluded to included the 12 000 police officers at stations coutrywide that he said were trained to deal specifically with cases involving violence against women.
The president's assurances of state efficiency, however, were contradicted by the harrowing case of Zakiyah Karim, whose brutal ordeal at the alleged hands of her husband included being slashed with razor blades, beaten with fists, threatened with an axe, and culminating in her naked body being urinated on mere weeks after giving birth in November last year.
The civic group AfriForum revealed these gruesome details on Wednesday, and said Karim's husband, Ahmed Paruk, had been arrested and charged with attempted murder and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
"But in April this year, the accused pleaded guilty to assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and admitted to only 'hit her with fists'," said Barry Bateman, spokesperson for Afriforum's private prosecutions unit.
Bateman said Paruk had received a one-year suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to assault.
Legislation fighting GBV
But Ramaphosa, on Wednesday, pledged that the government would implement the 2019 National Strategic Plan and enforce laws that would bring violence against women "to an end".
He said:
The mooted gender-based violence legislation wants to create a council with a 13-member board, 80% of whom are women, which will "ensure that resources are equitably distributed for a comprehensive response to gender-based violence and femicide" – among other functions.
Sophie de Bruyn, the only survivor of the four women who led the historic August 1956 march, said violence against women was a new "battle" that had reached "shocking levels".
On this day in 1956, 20 000 women were led by #LillianNgoyi, #SophieDeBruyn, #HelenJoseph and #RahimaMoosa on a women’s march to the Union Buildings chanting: 'Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo!' 'You strike a woman, you strike a rock!’ - in protest against unjust laws under… pic.twitter.com/Lwmuq7vuTV
— Presidency | South Africa ???? (@PresidencyZA) August 9, 2023
The 85-year-old De Bruyn, who was present at the official Women's Day event, but could not speak due to an apparent throat issue, had her speech delivered by her daughter Sonja de Bruyn-Sebotsa.
"No woman is safe, young and old – no one is escaping this scourge. I would personally plea that we move away from generalities to finding practical measures to address these challenges," De Bruyn, through her daughter, pleaded.
Tired of 'platitudes'
The DA's Siviwe Gwarube, the official opposition's chief whip in Parliament, said on Wednesday that the party was tired of "platitudes", adding that the country's social ills "disproportionately affects women the most".
"The crime statistics show that it is women who are victims of violent crimes. Women in this country are raped and killed every single day."
