Sonke Gender Justice

News Category: In Print Media

  • Tragic row

    She cannot get the picture out of her head… of the man she was to marry next year, gunning down her two sisters and the husband of one of them.

    Yesterday Nonhlanhla Ndwandwe, 43, who survived the shooting spree, told how she saw her en­raged 45-year-old fiancé mow down her family.

    She survived by running away.

    The man, who has been ar­rested, is accused of murdering Nompumelelo Ndwandwe, 45, and Zandile Molefe, 48, and her hus­band, Siphokuhle, 55, on Sunday af­ternoon in Ndwedwe, near Inanda.

    tragic-row
    Sisters from left are Nonhlanhla, who survived, Nompumelelo who died, Fikile Mabaso (not involved) and Zandile Molefe, who also died. (PICTURE: SUPPLIED)

    Speaking to the Daily News’s sister newspaper, Isolezwe, from her family’s home in KwaMashu, Nonhlanhla Ndwandwe said she had had a 10-year relationship with the alleged shooter.

    “I don’t know how I slept last night because I keep seeing that picture in my head. I saw them be­ing killed. I saw him shoot dead my brother-in-law in his car and my sister who ran away to a neigh­bour,” Nonhlanhla said.

    She said she left him seven months ago because he was having affairs and she had had enough.

    “On Sunday I asked my sisters and brother-in-law to come with me to fetch my things because I was afraid to go alone.”

    Her neighbour, Nancy Gumede, was at home when the tragedy un­folded. She said she watched in horror as the suspect chased Nompumelelo into her house and fired.

    “Siphokuhle was killed inside the car, while his wife (Zandile) was killed inside his house. I didn’t know what to do. My whole body went numb at seeing Nompumelelo being shot at point-blank inside my house,” Gumede said.

    Gumede said the suspect had paid lobola for Ndwandwe, a Trans­port Department employee, and that they had been planning a white wedding.

    The neighbour said the two had had a quarrel and Ndwandwe had returned to her family home. She said the couple had built the house in Ndwedwe together and had been living there since its completion.

    “On Sunday, Nonhlanhla ar­rived with her sisters and brother-in-law. Her fiancé was not home that morning, so because we know each other as neighbours she came over to greet.”

    “We had a small chat, with her telling me that she came for some of her linen and kitchenware. At around 10am the man arrived and she left me, to go into the house,” Gumede said.

    She said it was quiet until about noon when Ndwandwe came to say her goodbyes.

    “She said she was leaving with­out the things she had come back for. The man refused to let her take the items, saying that she could only remove stuff from the house after the relevant elders had been involved in their separation.

    “He said since they built the house together, then everything was to be shared all at once at the right time. She then left with a heavy heart,” Gumede said.

    A few minutes later, shots rang out and the women were heard screaming.

    Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “Yes, this is sad, but remember this is a family matter. I don’t know what could have triggered such behaviour. The man has been residing alone in the house for a while, although I know them as a couple.”

    Social Development MEC, Weziwe Thusi, said she had sent so­cial workers to the family.

    Provincial police spokesman, Major Thulani Zwane, said the sus­pect had since been arrested and was in possession of a licensed firearm.

    He faces three murder charges and will appear in the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court soon.

    Tanya Charles, policy specialist for Sonke Gender Justice, said some men believed they owned their girlfriends or wives.

    “They find it difficult to have a relationship where both parties contribute towards its ‘healthy state’. Also, women who are murdered by someone known or close to them die painful deaths because of the betrayal of their feeling of security, and the shock of realising that the one close to them is actually the one who is dealing the deadly blow,” Charles said.

  • Mock rape at elite school shocks all

    Gender-based organisations have challenged South Africans to rethink the way they raise boys so that they are more sensitive to issues relating to violence against the vulnerable.

    This follows a Hilton College-linked scandal in which a group of boys took a picture showing one of them dressed in what appears to be a St Annes School for girls uniform while the other four pretend to rape “her”.

    The image appeared on social media with the caption: “Apparently we are ‘f**kbois’ (losers) yet they love us any­way”.

    The post triggered outrage on social media nationwide.

    Sonke Gender Justice’s Mbuyiselo Botha and Sakina Mohamed of People Opposing Women Abuse both said it was sad there were still teenagers who thought rape was a laughing matter.

    “Rape is such a violation that your whole being is taken away and some victims are unable to cope so they com­mit suicide. Boys are also sometimes victims so such ‘pranks’ makes one wonder if they are not acting out what they have seen being done,” Mohamed said.

    Botha said rape was a matter of life and death in some cases. He said parents and teachers had a major role in grooming boys into men and such “jokes” called for urgent attention and rethinking on what values the boys were being taught.

    “They are going to be husbands and fathers so we need to ensure they don’t raise their children with the mentality of making sickening jokes about sexual violence, especially in today’s society where so many young girls and boys are victims,” he said.

    Headmaster Peter Ducasse described the image as highly offensive and said the college would be investigating the matter before taking appropriate dis­ciplinary action.

    KZN department of education’s spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi con­demned the boys’ actions, describing it as “barbaric, inhumane and gender insensitive”.

    Mahlambi believed that such actions were a reflection of social ills and said he hoped no one was victimised at the end of the “mock rape” incident.

    “We have an interest in the findings of the school’s investigation and we will then advise accordingly,” he said.

    A Facebook post claiming to be from the Hilton College teens involved in the “mock rape” picture scandal apologises for “a joke” and “an act born out of ignorance, not malice”.

    “You have the right to know why we made this mistake. It was intended as a joke, between friends, but was a gross misjudgment. We are not making excuses and take full responsibility for our actions.”

  • Attempt to get men involved in fatherhood

    South Africa is on the “brink of becoming a father­less nation”, and more needs to be done to correct this and “redress the public ridicule of men who per­form roles traditionally performed by women”, say researchers.

    Speaking at a Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) seminar this week, Dr Tawanda Makusha said the country had a high father absenteeism rate – second only to Namibia in southern Africa.

    According to Andre Lewaks of Sonke Gender Justice and MenCare, a global fatherhood campaign, nearly half of the country’s children are growing up without fathers and 5 million women are single mothers. In response to this, the HSRC established the Fatherhood Project, “aimed at discussing the cultural barriers and perceptions which limit men’s involvement in re­productive health, housework and care for children”, said Makusha.

    He said there was evidence of men’s failure to sup­port their children or even acknowledge them. This, coupled with the high rate of sex­ual and physical violence against women and chil­dren perpetrated by men, created a general sense of suspicion about the motives of those men who did want to be involved in childcare.

    “With all these negative images and perceptions of men, there is a sense of giving up on them and excluding them from parenting programmes.”

    The HSRC’s Tracy Morison said research had shown that men spent an average of nine minutes a day involved in childcare.

    “As women have moved into the formal sector of employment, the level of care for their children has not been affected. They bear the double burden of earning and caring, the double shift,” said Morison.

    She also noted gender bias in childcare. “Parent­ing for women is an expectation, while for men it may be a choice. There are insidious little cues about who is really the parent.”

    These included baby changing rooms being in the women’s public toilets, said Morison.

    Makusha said the HSRC needed to conduct research which “challenged the stereotypes that link men to evolutionary masculinity portray men’s innate incapacity – men can’t do this – and present the ‘inexpressive male’ who is emotionless”.

  • ‘End sexual violence’

    The recent police statistics revealed that sexual offences for the period 2014/15 totalled 53 617 for 2014/15, down by five percent (56 680) from the previous year – however, Sonke Gender Justice research points to a society that is besieged by sexual violence.

    The organisation’s spokesperson, Tanya Charles, said police statistics alone cannot be used to assess whether sexual offences were occurring with more or less frequency. She said there was a big difference between reported sexual offences and the actual prevalence of sexual offences, which can only be ascertained through data that is collected from a representative sample of people and through proper research.

    “Sonke’s own research and the findings of many other civil society organisations points to a society that is besieged by sexual violence, and the only way to truly bring the stats down would be to increase sexual violence prevention programming. And also contribute significant funding to services [including training and psychological support to police] who are sometimes themselves ill-equipped to handle cases,” Charles said.

    She added that there was a need to essentially develop a national plan on gender-based violence that was multisectoral, funded, and in partnership with the many organisations that have, for decades, been working to end sexual offences.

    Sonke Gender Justice is a non-partisan, non-profit organisation established in 2006, which uses a human rights framework to build the capacity of government, civil society organisations and citizens to achieve gender equality, prevent gender-based violence, and reduce the spread of HIV and the impact of Aids.

    Michael Sun, Shadow MMC for Public Safety in the City of Johannesburg said, “We, of course note, the decrease in some of the crime stats, such as sexual crimes decreasing to just under 10 000 cases and nationally at 53 617 cases, but one needs to look at the sexual crime stats realistically and understand that each reported case represents at least one victim.

    “What the crime stats also do not represent are the unreported cases, victims of sexual offences do not always report their grievances.”

    Chief forensic investigator of 1RS Forensic Investigations, Chad Thomas said the sexual offences statistics were of concern.

    “I fail to understand how most violent crimes have increased, yet there is a decrease in sexual offences reported. I do not believe that this is due to there being less sexual offences being perpetrated but, rather, because victims are becoming more afraid to come forward,” he said.

  • Pollsmoor is no rehab

    A rat infestation, causing the death of two Pollsmoor Prison inmates from leptospirosis, an infectious disease carried in rat urine, prompted a mass evacuation of 4 000 inmates to other prisons.

    This prison is overcrowded by more than 250%. After an inspection, South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases said overcrowding, inadequate waste management and blocked drains contributed to the infestation.

    The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union’ (POPCRU) has condemned the continued “inhumane conditions” at Pollsmoor, describing them as a matter of national concern.

    The union was disturbed by conditions at both the facility and the Women’s Correctional Centre at Pollsmoor and urged government to intervene as a matter of urgency.

    Cells built to accommodate 30 people were holding as many as 80. Sanitary conditions are pitiful. Awaiting-trial prisoners are 300% over capacity. Thousands lacking bail are forced to remain in prison for years waiting for their trial to take place.

    Popcru have stated: “Our view is that prisons should not be a death sentence… it’s meant to be a place where people can be rehabilitated.”

    Nooshin Erfani-Ghadimi, project co­ordinator at the Wits Justice Project in Johannesburg, stated that conditions at Pollsmoor have been an issue for a long time and are against everything that the constitution stands for.

    Emily Keehn, a consultant with Sonke Gender Justice’s prisons programme, stated that if the department was conforming to the minimum standards, these deaths would not have happened. The prison has been overcrowded for the past 10 years. She said the government description of criticism of Pollsmoor as myopic was “disingenuous and out of touch with reality”.

    Pollsmoor has been the subject of much scrutiny over the past few months. In early September, Edwin Cameron, a Constitutional Court judge, described being “deeply shocked” by the “extent of overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, sickness, emaciated physical appearance of detainees.

    He had visited the prison in April, and his report for the Constitutional Court describeed conditions as failing to comply with the standards of the country’s Bill of Rights and the Correctional Services Act.

    Manelisi Wolela, spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services, said South Africa was dealing with an inhumane and brutal past. How much longer can this excuse be dragged out? Are the general public considered to be that stupid?

    The reality is that most people become prisoners as a result of their environment and upbringing. Badisa handled almost 24 000 cases involving various forms of child abuse and neglect last year. Recently, to top it all, five children were removed from a family because they were so badly neglected, their fingers and toes had been eaten by rats.

    Social services for the people of South Africa, from the bottom up, need to be overhauled and brought up to speed. This is a top priority. Total budgets need to be investigated with a huge magnifying glass and overhauled. Unnecessary “gravy train” expenses must be ditched. What is mentioned here is the tip of the iceberg. Funds crucially need to be re­distributed.

    To deal with the prison problem, South Africa desperately needs more prisons, no overcrowding, and facilities for rehabilitation, so at least the inmates have a chance of starting a new life on release, rather than continuing on the same path. Otherwise, what on earth is the point of the incarceration? All the prison establishments in South Africa need to be thoroughly investigated.

    The current conditions serve no purpose other than releasing more hardened criminals.

  • Show of support to back miners’ lawsuit

    Richard Sqhamo Hoyi toiled for 27 years in the mines until he contracted silicosis. Today he finds it difficult to walk long distances as a result of the terminal disease. The 57-year-old Hoyi, from Peddie in the Eastern Cape, was among the silicosis-stricken mineworkers who joined the march against the mining companies yesterday

    The march was led by Section27, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Sonke Gender Justice. The three organisations demonstrated in support of the mineworkers’ case currently unfolding in the high court in Joburg.

    Hoyi spoke of his plight through an interpreter. Normally silicosis makes it difficult for him to walk long distances. But luckily yesterday’s march moved slowly enough so that he was able to keep up.

    He said if they won the case, he would feel free from the burden of the disease because silicosis made it difficult for him to look after his children, and it was his biggest worry He has daughters aged 21,16 and 12.

    Bongani Radebe, a demonstrator with the TAC, said: “If the man is affected, the wife is affected and the children are affected.”

    At least 400 people – their T-shirts’ colours representing three different organisations – united by donning white min­ing helmets and marching together in support of the mineworkers. This was as the class certification hearing by their legal team entered its second day

    The march began in Newtown and stopped twice in Marshall Street, once at the offices of Anglo American, a mining company involved in the case, and once at the Chamber of Mines, before arriving at the high court.

    “The mining companies are profiting with the lives of our people,” said Sibongile Tshabalala, the TAC’s Gauteng chairwoman, as she bellowed into a microphone from the back of a flatbed truck.

    “It has to stop now. They have to take care of the miners while they’re making profits off them.”

    As they passed the Anglo American offices, the marchers formed into rows and held hands.

    “You killed our miners,” one man yelled before the group erupted in song.

    “Senzeni na (What have we done?),” they sang.

    Mark Heywood, the director of Section27, said his organisa­tion supported the miners because it stood for the right to health and helping the poor get access to justice.

    “This country is built on gold, but the people who dug the gold are dying from it.

    “Silicosis and tuberculosis are among the biggest health crises in the country”

    Heywood said most of the mineworkers lived in rural areas where getting the treatment they need was difficult.

    The three organisations were due to continue present­ing arguments today The miners’ lawyers are scheduled to take over tomorrow.

    Many held signs with mes¬sages condemning the miningcompanies. The signs read “Dear goldmines, apartheid is over” and “Exploited. Damaged. Discarded. #silicosis.”

  • Unite Against Corruption issues demands

    Organisers of the Unite Against Corruption March gave the gov­ernment yesterday a wish list of demands including that the state strengthen anticorruption institu­tions such as the public protector.

    Although the organisers had said they wanted upwards of 100,000 people to form part of the protest, only an estimated 5,000 showed up for demonstrations in Cape Town and Pretoria.

    anti-coruption-march
    Thousands braved a heat wave in Pretoria yesterday to protest against corruption. The march to the Union Buildings was supported by various groups including political parties, faith-based bodies, unions and nongovernmental organisations. Picture: Freddy Mavunda

    On Friday, the initiative was dealt a setback when the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) failed to secure a section 77 notice for the march at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), which would have given workers protection to take part in the protest. Nedlac gave the union strike protection for a later date — October 8, a day after the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is scheduled to take to the streets against job losses.

    anti-coruption-march2
    EFF leader Julius Malema, centre, takes part in an anticorruption march against the government in Pretoria yesterday. Picture: EPA

    Religious leaders, opposition parties, civil society formations and organised labour came together yesterday and collectively demanded of the Presidency that it deal decisively with individuals and firms found guilty of corruption.

    Prominent faces included for­mer Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema.

    Protesters booed Monitoring and Evaluation Minister Jeff Radebe, who received the memorandum on behalf of the Presidency.

    The Democratic Alliance and the Congress of the People also threw their weight behind the march. Lawyers for Human Rights, Equal Education, Section27, the Treatment Action Campaign, Sonke Gender Justice, and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation also lent their support to the march.

    Mr Malema said the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) loss of electoral support was partly driven by growing dissatisfaction about corruption. “The ANC lost 10% in Gauteng. It is no joke.”

    The party issued a statement in which it said it welcomed the anti- corruption initiative and encouraged the movement to support various measures put in place by the government to combat the scourge.

    The government has until the end of the month to respond to the initiative’s demands.

    But Mr Vavi said protesters would return in two weeks’ time expecting the arrest, or resigna­tion, of Cabinet ministers who had been involved in, or failed to address, corruption. [email protected]

  • Positive discipline instead of corporal punishment

    “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him, is careful to discipline him.” Although many parents and teach­ers still believe this to be true, two organi­sations have teamed up to help change the mindset of West Coast teachers.

    Sonke Gender Justice, a non-profit or­ganisation, and children rights advocate, Save the Children, held a workshop at Blue Bay Lodge last Thursday to promote positive discipline in schools. According to Divya Naidoo, programme manager for Save the Children, corporal punishment is only a short term solution and not sus­tainable in the long run. “The law (on cor­poral punishment) may have changed but we still need to change mindsets. When the law changed, the rod was taken away but nothing substantial was put in its place and many educators were a little lost,” she said.

    Many teachers at the workshop asked for practical solutions to deal with dis­ruptive learners, who may at times endanger the rest of the class. Naidoo said that hitting a child is never the answer and that prevention is always better than cure. “Right now teachers are dealing with the most difficult generation yet. The jump between learners today and the previous has never been this great. Tech­nology is adding to this challenge.

    “Simple things like changing our tone when you speak to a child can help. We must remember children spend most of their active hours at school and educators have great influence on them,” she added.

    Andre Lewak from Sonke, said all forms of corporal punishment – at home and school – should be done away with as using the rod and other forms of corpo­ral punishment so easily lead to abuse.

  • Flawed figures shackle victims of child rape

    This recurring claim has been repeated at least three times – at a high-level international crime conference in Cape Town, in an opinion piece on a leading news website and in a speech by a senior Western Cape politician.

    The national manager of child abuse charity Matla A Bana, Monique Stiydom, told delegates at the 35th Annual Crime Stoppers International Conference that “according to statistics a child is raped every three minutes in South Africa”.

    Then a spokesman for the NGO Sonke Gender Justice, Czerina Patel, wrote in a column: “A 2009 report by trade union Solidarity indicated that a child is raped every three minutes in South Africa, and still Sonke and other organisations are forced to mount this nationwide advocacy campaign in order to try to push our government to real action.”

    Most recently, Western Cape education minister Debbie Schafer stated that a “report compiled by Solidarity Helping Hand said that while there were about 60 cases of child rape reported in South Africa every day, more than 88 percent of child rapes were never reported”.

    The claim has been repeated over the years by the South African Medical Research Council, The Witness, the International Business Times, Vice, the BBC and The Guardian. The statistic has also been referred to by News24 and Health24, and included in a text book.

    But is the claim correct? What evidence is there to support it?

    The 2009 report by Helping Hand called “Child abuse – the scourge of our society” that is so often cited as the source of the claim was commissioned by Helping Hand, a charity wing of the Afrikaner civil rights organisation Solidarity.

    It is no longer available on their websites but can still be found on the Internet Archive. The report was written by a freelance journalist, De Wet Potgieter, and was intended to raise awareness and provide information about child abuse.

    It stated: “The South African National Youth Victimisation Survey of 2005 found that only 11.3 percent of child rapes are reported to the [South African Police Service], This means that if 60 child rapes are reported every day, in reality 531 cases take place. That is one child that is raped every three minutes! “So are  60 child rape cases reported per day in South Africa?

    The Helping Hand report referred to the polices crime statistics for April to December 2007, which showed that 16 068 rapes involving children had been reported in that time – around 60 child rape cases per day.

    But the following year the police discovered a serious flaw in the data. According to the police’s 2008/2009 annual report, the 16 068 figure included rape victims who were older than 18 but younger than 19. This means the number of child rape cases Helping Hand based their claim on included an unknown number of cases where victims were not minors.

    Since 2008 the police have not reported the number of child rape cases separately in their annual report. Instead, incidents of child rape are lumped together under the sexual offences category that includes rape and sexual assault of all genders and ages, prostitution and acts such as flashing.

    So how many children are raped every day in South Africa?

    After a month of persistent requests, the police finally provided disaggregated data that showed reported child rapes decreased from around 57 cases per day in 2012/13 to almost 51 in 2013/14. But as rape is notoriously underreported, a decrease in reported rapes is not necessarily a sign that sexual violence is decreasing or that police interventions are effective.

    Researchers carry out victimisation surveys to more accurately estimate the real prevalence of crime. They do so by interviewing a representative sample of people – of a certain region, gender or age, or a whole country – about their experience of crime. The victimisation study that Helping Hand used for the statement “if 60 child rapes are reported every day, in reality 531 cases take place” was carried out by the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention in 2005.

    Around 4 400 respondents between the ages of 12 and 22 were asked if they had been victims of crimes – ranging from theft and assault to robbery, house breaking, sexual assault and car hijacking.

    According to this survey, only 11.3 percent of sexual assaults were reported to the police.

    To establish this, the respondents were asked a very broad question: “Has anyone ever forced you to have sex; kissed, or touched your body without your consent; tried to insert their penis or other foreign object into places you were not happy with; forced you to touch them in places you were not happy with; or forced you to behave in any other sexual way?

    The Helping Hand report interpreted this result as the rate at which child rape cases are reported. But the assumption was wrong because the question did not distinguish between rape and a broad range of sexual crimes.

    Unfortunately there are no victimisation studies about child rape available in South Africa at present, the director of the Medical Research Councils gender and health research unit, Rachel Jewkes, told Africa Check.

    Patrick Burton, executive director at Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention and co-author of the 2005 National Youth Victimisation Survey, said: “We don’t have nationally representative data on [the underreporting of child rape].

    “We just don’t have the data for incidences, prevalence or ages. There aren’t any statistics out there that show that a child is raped every three minutes.”

    According to Burton, the centre and the University of Cape Town are undertaking a national study of child and adolescent abuse in South Africa and hope to release the findings in March next year.

    The results, together with police statistics, could allow us to form a more accurate picture.

    The conclusion is that the claim that “a child is raped every three minutes in South Africa” is based on flawed data and calculations. – Africa Check

  • Report by Gender Commission handed to President Zuma

    President Jacob Zuma has received a report on the transforma­tion of the judiciary from the Com­mission for Gender Equality (CGE).

    The report is the result of an investigation conducted by the CGE after it received complaints from the Demo­cratic Governance and Rights Unit at the University of Cape Town and the Sonke Gender Justice Network.

    The two organisations lodged a complaint with the CGE pertaining to what they called gender discrimi­nation in the appointment of judicial officers in SA. They said that between 2009 and 2012 the Judicial Services Commission interviewed a total of 211 candidates for 110 positions in the judiciary and only 24 women were appointed.

    They further maintained that a fewer number of women being appointed to judicial positions goes against statistics that show that there are more female law graduates than male ones, and more female admitted attorneys than male ones. Further­more, at the time when the complaint was lodged there were 561 female practising advocates nationally from a pool of 2 384.

    President Zuma said he has noted the recommendations of the CGE report and thanked the Commission for its extensive investigation.

    “The report will be processed by the relevant government departments,” he said.

    Presidency spokesperson Bongani Majola said the Democratic Govern­ance and Rights Unit and the Sonke Gender Justice Network cited the fol­lowing parties as respondents: the President of the Republic of SA, the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, the Judicial Service Commission, and the Chief Justice.

    “They asked the CGE to investigate, among other factors, why there were significantly more male judicial officers at the time than female ones and why the disparity contin­ues to exist. They further asked the CGE to conduct an assessment of South Africa’s compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women.

    “After its investiga­tion the CGE found that there was a slow pace of gender transformation in the judiciary, and the slow pace is applicable to both the permanent and acting judicial appointments,” he said.

    The CGE identified critical barriers which lie behind the slow gender transformation such as lack of certainty of the Judicial Service Commis­sion (JSC) procedures and criteria in how it makes appointments; inaccessi­bility of venues selected by the JSC and lack of female leadership at insti­tutions such as the Law Society of South Africa.

  • ANCYL branch chair gets R3 000 bail – cash he collected before arrest

    PATRICK Wisani, the ANC Youth League leader and former community police forum (CPF) member accused of sjambokking his girlfriend to death, had started collecting bail money before he was arrested. This emerged in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court yes­terday when Lieutenant Nomonde Qilingana testified during Wisani’s bail hearing.

    Wisani, 30, who is the chair­man for the ANCYL’s Joburg Inner City branch, allegedly beat Nosipho Mandleleni, 24, to death with a sjambok and broomstick.

    Qilingana said she had ques­tioned Wisani on the day of the murder at the Yeoville house where the beating took place on a Saturday two weeks ago. He allegedly left after Mandleleni’s twin sister Siphokazi arrived and started pointing at him, crying and screaming: “You killed my sister!”

    Qilingana got Wisani’s phone number from her colleagues at Yeoville police station and phoned him. “I asked why he left while I was still busy with him. He responded to say he’s still seeking money for bail (and) he’ll come to the police station,” she told the court through a Xhosa interpreter.

    Qilingana said that when she tried to contact him the next day, his phone was off.

    That Monday Wisani, accom­panied by his lawyer, handed himself over to police.

    Yesterday, magistrate Pieter du Plessis granted Wisani R3 000 bail and set strict conditions. He took into account the fact that, as a former Yeoville CPF member, Wisani had connections to the police in the area.

    “You may not enter Yeoville at all during the duration of the trial to preclude you from inter­fering with the investigation.”

    This was also because Mandleleni’s twin shared the Yeoville house with her and Wisani, and would be called as a witness.

    “You may not communicate with the twin sister of the victim or any other witness, directly or through any intermediary,” Du Plessis added.

    He ordered Wisani to report to Khutsong police station every Monday and Thursday and warned him that he could possibly face a life sentence, pending the outcome of his trial.

    Mbuyiselo Botha, the spokes­man for Sonke Gender Justice, said that in the interest of jus­tice, the outcome of the bail hearing had to be respected.

    “But we, as an organisation, will want to monitor the out­come (of the trial) to make sure this woman gets justice,” he said.

    The NGO’s Gorata Chengeta called for Wisani to be suspended from the ANCYL.

    “It is Sonke’s stance that the conduct of men in positions of power shapes the gender atti­tudes and related conduct of other men and boys, and thus we consider allegations of this kind of particular concern from a social and gender perspective,” she said.

    The case was postponed to October 30.

  • The Guardian posts article on the new State of the World’s Fathers Report

    A piece written in The Guardian on the new State of the World’s Fathers (SOWF) Report gives good breakdown of some of the findings of the first ever MenCare #SOWF report and why measures like paternity leave are necessary to support men in taking on caregiving roles.

    Guardian quotes report co-author Nikki van der Gaag:

    “When fathers take on their fair share of the unpaid care work, it can alter the nature of the relationships between men and women and children, as both fathers and mothers will have more time for their children, women are released from some of their double burden, and fathers get to experience the joys, satisfactions, and stresses of caring for their children.

    Taking up roles as caregivers also offers men the opportunity to begin to break free from the narrow concepts of manhood and fatherhood, providing their sons and daughters with positive role models, improved health and development, and higher hopes for the future.”

    Read more here:

    http://bit.ly/1dHwFFi

    “When fathers take on their fair share of the unpaid care work, it can alter the nature of the relationships between men and women and children, as both fathers and mothers will have more time for their children, women are released from some of their double burden, and fathers get to experience the joys, satisfactions, and stresses of caring for their children.”

    The SOWF report is launched by MenCare (which is coordinated and steered by):

    [CP]

  • Sonke and Lawyers For Human Rights on the overcrowded conditions at Pollsmoor prison

    In today’s Mail & Guardian, Sonke’s Emily Keehn, Czerina Patel and Lawyers For Human Rights‘ Clare Ballard write about the oppressive and disease-inducing conditions subjected upon awaiting trial detainees at Pollsmoor Prison’s severely overcrowded remand facilities:

    Comment: Overcrowded jails deadly, inhumane

    Open Society Foundations

    The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa

    Bhekisisa

  • Mail & Guardian publishes an article on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights

    The Mail & Guardian has published an article on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in which they quote Sonke’s Advocacy and Accountability Programmes Director, Vuyiseka Dubula:

    “…[S]exual rights of women are compromised in relationships where women do not have power to negotiate safe sex particularly when it comes to prevention of HIV transmission.”

    ‘Once he says he doesn’t want a condom, that’s that’

    mg.co.za

    Gender imbalances in intimate relationships make it difficult for women to decide when, if at all, to have children.

  • Sonke statement on Operation Fiela in Beeld

    Beeld references Sonke (and our partners’) call to the South African government to stop stigmatising foreign nationals and to end Operation Fiela.

    Sonke statement on Operation Fiela in Beeld

  • Sonke’s concerns on Operation Fiela in Die Burger

    Die Burger references Sonke (and our partners’) call to the South African government to stop stigmatising foreign nationals and to end Operation Fiela.

  • Male prison rape survivors speak out

    Sonke Gender Justice, Just Detention International & NICRO are partnered to increase public awareness around prisoner rape. In the Mail & Guardian today, three brave men who went through a digital story-telling process with us speak out about rape in prisons.

  • Sonke’s concerns about government’s targeting of migrants through Operation Fiela discussed in M&G

    The Mail and Guardian extensively discusses Sonke (and our partners’) comments calling on the South African government to stop stigmatising foreign nationals and to end Operation Fiela.

    http://mg.co.za/article/2015-05-14-operation-fiela-set-to-stay-says-cabinet

  • Tanzania: Men Join Women’s Rights Bandwagon in Tarime

    Almost 300 people, the majority of them men and boys, have turned up to attend a community public meeting held to promote the rights of women and children in Tarime district, Mara region.

    The meeting, which was held at Serengeti ground in Tarime town, was organized by Children’s Dignity Forum (CDF), a non-governmental organization, through its new project dubbed ‘MenEngage.’

    “The aim was to involve men and boys in promoting the rights of women and children in Tarime,” MenEngage Project Coordinator, Ms Dorothea Ernest, told the ‘Daily News‘ in Tarime on Thursday morning.

    Officials from the Community Development and Health Departments of Tarime district also attended the meeting, which was coloured by traditional dance groups locally known as Iritungu.

    A day prior to the community meeting the NGO had organized a dialogue with 40 men and boys here to lay out strategies aimed reducing gender-based violence (GBV) in the district.

    “We are happy that the response of Tarime men and boys during the dialogue and the community meeting was very positive and we expect to continue reaching many other men and boys to be part of the desired changes,” she added.

    The three-year project is designed to boost on-going campaigns against female mutilation (FGM), child marriages and teenage pregnancies with the support of Sonke Gender Justice of South Africa through CDF.

    With its headquarters in Dar es Salaam, CDF had also opened an office in Tarime Town Council that has seen it enhancing campaigns against FGM, child marriages and teenage pregnancies in rural parts of Tarime in the recent years. The local organization is enjoying good cooperation from Tarime district leaders.

    By Mugini Jacob

  • Sisonke Msimang interviewed in M&G feature on mainstreaming feminism in South Africa

    What happened to feminism in South Africa? Sisonke Msimang, a Policy Development and Advocacy consultant for Sonke Gender Justice speaks on the issue in this article in this week’s Mail & Guardian.

    The bokkie stops here: Let’s make feminism fashionable again

    mg.co.za

    The fight for women’s rights has too often been stigmatised and ignored in favour of race politics.

  • Miners seek justice over killer dust

    Sonke’s Dean Peacock and Emily Nagisa Keehn and the Treatment Action Campaign’s Anele Yawa write in the Mail & Guardian about mine workers afflicted with silicosis and/or TB launching a historic class action lawsuit for compensation.

  • Sonke’s Wessel van den Berg in Mail & Guardian

    Gender-based violence can be tackled at its roots by fathers taking an active role in caring for their children, writes Sonke’s Wessel van den Berg in the Mail & Guardian today.

  • Memorandum on National Strategic plan to end gender-based violence making headlines

    A memorandum sent to Women Minister Susan Shabangu, signed by Sonke and a coalition of civil organisations, urging Minister Shabangu to implement a fully-funded National Strategic Plan for Gender-Based Violence, made headlines in Business Day last week.

    Read the full press release here: Patriarchy Revisited

    More than 35 organisations and thousands of South Africans participated in rallies around South Africa calling for a national strategic plan on gender-based violence (GBV) during ‪#‎16Days‬ of Activism against violence against women and children.

    Civil society organisations involved in the GBV – national strategic plan campaign:

  • Sonke writes about the murder of nine year old Queen (from Delft) in the City Press

    Sonke’s Bongani Kona writes in the City Press about how reporting on the rape and murder of nine year old Queen was emotionally wrenching and also helped him reconnect with the problem of overwhelming sexual violence and violence against women and children in South Africa.

    CityPressSomethingInsideGaveWay

    Read the full article here: http://www.citypress.co.za/columnists/something-inside-suddenly-gave-way/