South Africa Needs Political Will & Leadership To Combat GBV & Femicide
It is safe to say that the events of the past week, starting with the breaking news concerning Luyanda Botha’s violent murder of 19-year-old, University of Cape Town student, Uyinene Mrwetyana, unleashed intense emotions reverberating throughout the country like an earthquake.
The mere fact that a 19-year-old young woman could not expect to return safely from a trip to the post office at 14h00 sent most of us into a deep dark place of helplessness; only brought back by insane anger at a country whose femicide rate seems to be soaring and unrelenting. For me, the news sent me into deep silence. There was a sense of defeat for we had marched, attended summits, debated and presented strategies, yet here we are as women still dying at the hands of men. At 14h54 I received a call from a sister who has walked this activism journey with me and all I could do on that call is cry, just cry — the devastation was overwhelming. However, we both knew we couldn’t stay in that place for too long, so we quickly lifted each other up and committed to doing an online video on Facebook to discuss the news with supporters of The Wise Collective.
As a mother to two girls 23 and 12 years old, I couldn’t allow myself to even consider what this means about the safety of my own children; the hypocrisy of my words when I leave them and say “be safe” as if they have control over their safety in a country where a woman is raped every 15 minutes and killed every 3 hours. Also, the hypocrisy of making this about my “vulnerable” children, young women, nieces and younger friends when the reality of this scourge has known no age, can only be a source of the deflection from a reality of having to boldly embrace our fear while defiantly fighting to the end. The week would proceed with this dichotomy of debilitating sadness and anger occasionally interrupted by spurts of defiant energy and determination to show resilience in the face of it all.
The irony of being brave while also facing deep fear at a personal level, I avoided calling my 23-year-old on Monday despite being preoccupied with thoughts and real concerns about her emotional state, in light of the news, and her safety. My anxiety was relieved when at 22h32 we received a WhatsApp group text in our family chat where she shared a link to her location via Life360 app without being probed. We have had a small (parents and kids only) family circle on Life360 which allowed us to check-in and update each other on our location since she was a teenager. However, when she went to university she started resisting keeping this app linked to her parents and ultimately after graduation and moving out on her own she eventually disconnected the app and completely resisted what she perceived and sometimes jokingly referred to as “an electronic leash tool of helicopter parenting.”
As we piece our emotional bruises, I’m happy to be geo-connected in this pretend “safety bubble” of our family circle on Life360; however, it is not lost on me that millions of South African women can’t even exercise this and many similar options that remain out of reach due to the high cost of devices and Internet costs. Most importantly, the reality on the ground is that no amount of pepper spray, self-defense classes, electronic leashes or days of mourning and prayer can guarantee our safety. What we need now is a political will and leadership to act!
Words by Onica Nonhlanhla Makwakwa, The Wise Collective, @AfroDiva