The commemoration of 16 Days of No Violence against Women and Children this year comes at a time Covid-19 has exposed the brutal inequalities in our society and its fractures.
The 16 Days is a time for deep introspection about us as a nation. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is not exempt; our members are not just drawn from the broader society it serves, they should be an example of what our society could be.
As a people’s defence force that prides itself on being a home for all South Africans irrespective of class, culture, creed, colour or orientation, shattering the glass ceilings in the process, we have long been seized by the issue of GBV within our own ranks as well as the conduct of our members in the communities they serve at home and internationally, keeping the peace on deployment.
Last year SA ratified its National Plan on Women, Peace and Security, localising UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on the importance of women in the prevention and resolution of conflict and peace building. Towards the end of last year, I convened a special ministerial task team to investigate sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse.
I was concerned about what I had been hearing anecdotally from women in uniform, but the trigger was when I heard of the case of a female soldier deployed to the DRC as part of the SA contingent. What saddened me most was the woman’s family felt that no-one in the department, all the way down the chain of command, cared. Nothing could be further from the truth. We all care deeply.
Under the leadership of Thoko Mpumlwana, deputy chair of the Commission on Gender Equality, the five-person task team has worked tirelessly this year, consulting across units and ranks, reviewing old cases of sexual offences back to 2014, looking at how military courts dealt with these as well as reviewing all existing policies on sexual harassment and exploitation to check if they were up to international standards.
This has been an unprecedented intervention, even without the backdrop of the greatest public health crisis facing the world in living memory. I have been given a draft of its report and look forward to sharing it with great pride and a wonderful sense of optimism, not just with the men and woman who make up the national defence force, but the entire country.
The task team’s work has not been limited to establishing how the SANDF treats its female members, who make up 31% of the total strength – one of the highest percentage of women in the military in the world – but also how our members behave. The end result will be, I hope, a framework to fashion a defence force that is both empowered and diverse but also incredibly disciplined and fit for purpose in some of the most trying assignments.
As we commemorate this incredibly important time, I reiterate the president’s call on all South Africans to break the chain of silence. It’s not enough to say "enough is enough", we have to act. Many of us in the department of defence are women, many of us are mothers and grandmothers. We must believe our children and grandchildren when they tell us they are being abused.
All of us, men and women, young and old, must pledge ourselves to eradicating sexual harassment and sexual exploitation in our homes, our places of work. We must all take responsibility for ending this problem, so that one day there will be no need for 16 days a year to come face-to-face with the true horror of this scourge. The truth is, this is our problem as South Africans and we have the power to stop it.
As the president notes, we can only move forward and defeat this evil if we speak up.
• Mapisa-Nqakula is minister of defence and military veterans
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.