These are the key elements needed to stamp out gender-based violence in South Africa

The annual campaign of 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence that kicked off on 25 November will temporarily sustain the focus on South Africa’s need to reduce and prevent gender-based violence. 

Getting this right depends on numerous factors, including a collective understanding of how different forms of violence, visible and invisible, intersect and reinforce one another and what individuals, institutions and companies can do to prevent it. It also requires acknowledging why past efforts have failed, and identifying concrete steps to achieve our goals. 

Several of the multisectoral ‘clinics’ convened during the Presidential Summit on Gender-based Violence and Femicide on 1 and 2 November addressed these issues. Gender-based violence can’t be considered in isolation from other forms of violence. A growing body of research shows how they are connected and reinforce one another. 

Recent findings from a 30-year study involving South Africans born in the Soweto-Johannesburg area in 1994 reveal important facts. The study covers the nature of violence, its impact on human development, and what it will take to prevent and break cycles of violence. 

Results showed that 87% of the study cohort, both boys and girls, were exposed to four or more forms of violence, such as physical, sexual, emotional and substance abuse, by the age of 18. This increased their likelihood of becoming a victim or perpetrator — or both — of further violence. It also confirmed what many other studies have shown: that experiences of violence in childhood are not only common but also cumulative.

It is not only that violence begets violence. Experiences of violence significantly influence a range of other outcomes. Suffering violence in childhood increases the likelihood of unemployment, school dropout, substance abuse, and dependence on a social grant. In short, violence is a strong contributing factor to many of the challenges that hamper South Africans’ well-being and national development. 

At the summit, President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged that South Africa needs to pay more attention to preventing gender-based violence. At the same time, in early November, some provincial departments of social development were reducing funding for social services that are crucial safety nets and key to preventing violence. Examples are after-school care programmes, soup kitchens and parent-support initiatives.



What is the solution? All South Africans must contribute to removing sources of harm and inequality and healing woundedness, by intentionally growing an ethic of mutual care, respect, and inclusion.