A few more sleeps and this year's Women's Month will be done and dusted only for it and August 9 – the day SA celebrates for the bravery of women who marched on apartheid prime minister JG Strijdom to protest against pass laws in 1956 – to be dredged up again next year and the same almost meaningless noise to be made about aiding the cause of women's liberation.
Had we had a Martian in our midst during the past two months or so, they would probably be perplexed at the odd behaviour of Earthlings in this part of the world who around this time of the year make noises about the right to be of the female of the species but amid it all carry on as usual to murder, rape and abuse them in all sort of manner, almost with impunity.
They would also be amazed at how a minister who uttered some insanely insensitive words around the attack on a group of women at a mine dump that left the nation appalled is still sitting pretty in his position despite his glaring failure to deliver on his mandate: safety and security for all, especially the vulnerable in society.
Women would naturally feature among those deemed in need of one of the state's most basic functions and responsibilities. To be fair, the government partly came to the party with the tightening of laws around the ills of gender-based violence that stalks women in all walks of life.
The said Martian would no doubt also question general society's tolerance of this relentless onslaught on women which saw the leader of the official opposition also joining the misogynist march by calling his ex-wife a road kill, using the flimsy cover of a satirical show to justify the verbal violence.
Unbelievable. A minister says a woman was lucky to be raped by one man when a gang of thugs took turns to rape eight women, and stays in his job. And a leader of the second biggest party, unprovoked, found a way to describe the mother of his children as such.
Meanwhile, the statistics on rape, as shown in the release of crime stats last week, keep rising despite the belief that the crime is still under-reported, while we go on our merry ways paying lip service to the fight against women abuse.
It is not a declaration of intent that will make women safe and secure in our society but action and that demands better from those in positions of power, more often than not, men.
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