During his inauguration as SA’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela urged us all to act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world. He said: “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.”
Today, as we reflect on the legacy of the father of our nation, it is important to realise that the struggle to end gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) is far from won and the damage being done to society, economies and communities is getting more severe by the day. GBVF is unravelling the hopes and dreams we had as a nation when Madiba first walked free and set us on a path to freedom.
We need to invoke the spirit of overcoming oppression today to ensure we can leave behind a society we can be proud of, and in which our children can be free, happy and without fear.
This calls to mind a famous Mandela quote: “Since my release, I have become more convinced than ever that the real makers of history are the ordinary men and women of our country; their participation in every decision about the future is the only guarantee of true democracy and freedom.”
One of the most important decisions all of us must make is to end GBVF in our lifetime. It will not be solved without sustained and deliberate effort from all sectors of society.
With the national strategic plan on GBVF of 2020 as our guiding light, the GBVF Response Fund was set up as an independent, private sector-led entity aimed at galvanising a broader societal response to end the scourge. We hit the ground running and are on track to help drive a co-ordinated response to this national pandemic. In just 18 months since its establishment, we managed to support 110 high-impact community-based and four intermediary organisations in the fight against GBVF.
The programmes and initiatives implemented by the grant partners will positively affect women, children, the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as other vulnerable groups.
The reason for adopting a multi-sectoral approach is to bring about meaningful, sustainable and broad-based change. This approach to taking the fight of the survivors to a new level is working, but the road ahead is a long one.
We need all SA’s people to have a greater awareness of the extent of the problem and to help, as this project cannot be realised in isolation. Changing behaviours, long-held beliefs and stereotypes requires ongoing work on the ground by those with the skills to bring about true, lasting change.
This is not just a problem in SA. The UN has called violence against women a “shadow pandemic”. It says one in three women worldwide experience physical or sexual violence mostly by an intimate partner. Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation, and before the Covid pandemic 243m women and girls, aged 15-49, experienced violence in the past year. Since the pandemic, violence against women, especially domestic violence, intensified.
We all need to do more – and together we can do more. The time to end GBV, in all corners of the country, is now. So, let’s come together as one to meet Madiba’s expectations and let freedom and human rights reign in a manner that would make him proud.
The GBVF Response Fund was launched by President Cyril Ramaphosa in February 2021 to tackle the scourge of GBVF. It is a private sector-led initiative aimed at supporting the national strategic plan by raising financial and non-financial resources, and allocating them to high-impact organisations working to prevent GBVF and ensure support and access to justice for victims.
• Dlamini is CEO of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Response Fund
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