Sonke Gender Justice

News Category: Sonke News

  • Staff Writing on Xenophobia: Kelly

    As news reports of anti-immigrant violence begin to surface in the international media, my family and friends back home have been writing to me to ensure that I am safe. I am, I tell them. They ask me if I feel threatened and if conditions “in my immediate neighbourhood” are stable. I don’t; they are.

    So much so that, if I chose to, I could ignore the ethnic cleansing that has purged whole townships of foreigners, killing dozens of them and displacing tens of thousands. I have that option because I’m not That Kind of Foreigner; I don’t live in Those Neighbourhoods. I am an American intern living a few steps from Cape Town’s central business district. I am white.

    Of course, I do not choose to ignore this crisis. I identify with the dreadlocked man on the front page of the Cape Argus who wore a bumper sticker proclaiming that “We are all Zimbabweans”. Along with the many South Africans who abhor this thuggery, I swam through waves of shock and mourning before arriving at a place of action. As emergency calls reached our offices Friday morning, I saw myself reflected in the dejected faces of my colleagues, who had hoped to prevent the violence from spreading to their neighbourhoods. That afternoon, I listened to a Somali woman shout over the radio, “I came here to get away from the problem in Somalia. Now, they make these problems. Where am I supposed to go now?” Her voice did not sound dejected or timid, as the majority of the news outlets had consistently portrayed the displaced. It sounded angry. Even though I am not That Kind of Foreigner, I am still A Foreigner. I came to South Africa to earn something, to better myself, just like the Somali woman. Morally, I cannot separate my plight from hers.

    Yet it strikes me how easy that would be. Whatever pressures drove the mobs in Khayelitsha or Alex to loot and burn are comfortably separate from my life. Pap is not a staple for me; I could not tell you how much it costs today and how that price has increased. The power is always on in my house – no load shedding here. I have clean water, sewage, trash removal, and quiet nights. If there are killings in Khayelitsha, I read about them in the news (if anyone bothers to print a story). I don’t bother the townships with my relatively petty problems; they don’t bring their problems to me, either. Like good neighbours.

    I guarantee you that Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, and Helen Zille also have such considerate neighbours; they also can choose how much to care. In fact, concern was shown for some of the foreigners who the mobs have threatened: amidst the reports of 20,000 African immigrants displaced, there were several attempts to reassure international tourists that South Africa is still safe for a rainbow vacation. Certain Foreigners must never, ever be offended.

    And while tourists were shuffled up and down Table Mountain, a train to Jo’burg was packed to the gills with migrants returning to Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe; six extra coaches were added to accommodate their numbers and armed guards accompanied them the whole way. No government ministers were deployed to encourage them to stay – it was the most successful deportation scheme the city has ever seen. For the government, it was a solution to a problem; soon, it will be as if those people never existed. But I wonder, what songs were sung on that train? What did strangers say to each other when their eyes met? What stories were rolled up into bundles and packed out? As they watched the landscape open out before them, did they see their arrivals rewound, or was it all a terrible, unstoppable march forward?

    Mbeki has done a brilliant job of fostering “good neighbourliness” not only between the cities and the townships, but also between South Africa and Zimbabwe. I have long said that he would pay for his friendliness with Mugabe. I was wrong. He hasn’t paid. He has sacrificed others. While he props up a dictator’s decrepit regime, Zimbabwe doesn’t eat. Zimbabwe is detained and tortured, dragged from the back of a bakkie. Zimbabwean Foreigners (for that is what they become when they cross into South Africa in order to buy bread) are unceremoniously repatriated from Lindela. Township tsotsis are not the only ones to blame for brutalising Zimbabweans, when even the President believes that they, unlike other Africans who take refuge here, should be left to starve or be persecuted for their political beliefs. Zimbabweans must be a completely Different Kind of Foreigner.

    Whilst the government wrings its hands about how close to keep its neighbours, thousands of South Africans and foreign nationals have taken action. Over the weekend, my office at Sonke Gender Justice was converted into a relief hub, with hundreds of people streaming in and out, offering what services they could and being dispatched to safe havens around the province. Desks were pushed to the walls, and the floor became a processing center for the donations that flowed in as fast as we could sort and deploy them. On Sunday evening, I wound up at a church in Somerset West, where sandwich-making and clothes-sorting teams stepped gingerly around children’s Bible study classes. I didn’t even learn the names of the people working alongside me, mostly Afrikaner women and girls, and they didn’t learn mine. I am told that in some communities in Khayelitsha, South Africans refused to allow their immigrant neighbours to be evacuated, ensuring police that they would protect each other. I know that for every story of forced removal, there are two stories of those who mobilised to shelter the affected; for every marauding criminal who attacked his neighbour, there are twenty who resisted.

    If anything is to rise from these ashes, it will have to come from the ones who resisted. We all have a responsibility to ask what happened, to walk down the alleyways and notice the spaces left behind, like missing teeth. We have a responsibility to ask why there is so much anger in the first place, and what each of us can do to address the ongoing tragedies in the townships: substandard public education that under-develops minds, soaring HIV rates that lay waste to bodies, and dehumanising living conditions in which only the hardiest souls can thrive. And we have a responsibility to support neighbouring countries as they struggle for democracy, just as they supported South Africa. Good neighbours don’t watch complacently while the house next door burns.There are many thousands of us who showed this weekend that we are ready to rise to the task. Now, when I ensure my parents that I feel safe, it’s not only because of the privileged status that my particular passport holds. It’s certainly not because the government is capable of protecting me or even has the will to do so. It’s a statement of faith that for the many who were jolted into action, this is only the beginning. I feel safe because I’ve seen thousands of ordinary South Africans put substance behind the slogan: We are all Zimbabweans.

  • Staff Writing on Xenophobia: Nobesethu

    I have been to areas in Mamelodi and Atteridgeville, Tshwane, where refugees and migrants have been displaced due to the attacks by my fellow South Africans. I have seen women and innocent children forced to live in unacceptable conditions without food, shelter, sanitation, clothing or any form of identification.

    I have seen men in despair, helpless that they could not be of any assistance to their wives, sisters and children. Their image as fathers, men and husbands reduced to nothing.

    But all that could not prepare me for the shock that awaited me at Jeppe police station. Here were hundreds of different foreign communities, all stranded together, squeezed at the back yard of the police station without hope, trust and no communication from anyone. All I could see from their eyes and hear from their silent voices was a cry for help, to whom? They do not know. I do not know.

    I feel as a country we have failed our fellow Africans, refugees and migrants that are supposed to be protected and their rights upheld. The meaning of life, love and ubuntu is lost.

    As a rights activist, a humanitarian worker and a Christian women in South Africa, I am speechless and embarrassed to be called a South African at this moment.

  • Staff Writing on Xenophobia: Robyn

    When the news of the first xenophobic attacks started to break two weeks ago, I was in an idyllic setting at an up market conference venue in Pretoria. Every day we were treated to meals that could feed a number of families and were sleeping in luxury suites far exceeding what I am used to and what most South Africans would have in the very best of times.

    Being in Gauteng the province affected at that stage – in an environment so different to the South Africa being depicted on the television every morning made the reality of the week of 13 May 2008 strangely surreal to me. The more the situation worsened, the more the conference venue luxury and pampering stayed the same. Our main concerns were around the settings of the air conditioner, while outside our country was starting to burn. Our national fabric was unraveling and I was sleeping under cotton percale linen.The following week had the most horrendous barrage of violent photographs splashed across the media. The reality of the situation could no longer be ignored. People were burning and the media was making sure that every one knew about it. At this point I was back in Cape Town and the warnings and nervous whispering of the violence spreading to the Western Cape were all around us. I optimistically hoped that any plans to fuel the fires in Western Cape would be extinguished at the planning stages.

    NGOs in the Mother City put their resources on a shared table and developed an emergency disaster management plan. Photographs were taken of willing volunteers, who were prepared to have their face on an anti-xenophobia poster, and plans for a mass march showing South Africa’s rejection of the recent attacks were underway. The NGO sector was really working together. A real sense of being in control and being busy offered comfort. Colleagues joined TAC and what looked like a crowd of over 1 000 concerned South Africans in a march against xenophobia and for a brief moment, it felt really good to be a South African again. But then the phone calls started coming in. As we were marching in town, so attacks were taking place in Khayelitsha. Concerned friends and acquaintances phoning each other in a spontaneous network. We rushed back to the office and tried to confirm reports, and get the information out to all the relevant parties before too much damage was done. That soothing sense of control was shattered and was replaced by disbelief and an absolute dread of what lay ahead. After an emotionally gruelling afternoon, it was time to wish beloved colleagues a good weekend. My toughest moment was not knowing what horrors would face the people in our city generally, and the people that I have grown to love specifically. A hug goodbye and a “please call me if you need me” seemed totally insufficient. Watching the press all weekend trying to assess the situation from more of a distance was unsettling in its own way. Things look calm from my quiet, removed suburb – but knowing about the threats and the fear in the community made me aware that those targeted by the violence would not have to be physically beaten and attacked in the true sense of the word. No matter what – the damage had been done. The betrayal had taken place and foreigners throughout our country would have sleepless nights, would be terrified to go home and would be devastated by fear. The emotional beating will continue long after the physical violence subsides.

    My own process has been softened by me being able to help with sorting of emergency supplies and working with some of the wonderful volunteers who always seem to spring up in the face of crisis. South Africa is a beautiful country and is the home to many beautiful people, and I saw this first hand when members of the public donated time, clothing and other much needed resources and others took these supplies to the various emergency accommodation sites in the city. As I am writing this, so there has been an announcement of unconfirmed reports of violence in Soetwater. The crisis continues, but in this, a large part of South Africa examines her soul, and rises in love, concern and unity.I am South African because I am African!

  • Staff Writing on Xenophobia: Stubbs

    The recent outbreak of xenophobic attacks got Sonke Gender Justice as an organisation to respond to the situation with the view of lending a helping hand to the many African nationals that we have been working with through our refugees programme . On Tuesday 20 May I visited the Jeppe Police Station with a Sonke colleague Nobesuthu Dikeledi, who manages our refugees project in Pretoria, after learning that most of the victims of the attacks have been flocking there since Saturday 17 May to seek safety and shelter.

    Little did I know that the situation would have such an impact on me. For the first time in my life I had to come face to face with the reality that thousands of Africans are faced with because of the unrest that is going on in their countries. Women, children and men all squeezed at the back yard of the police station resembling a scene that you normally see only in the movies or on the news happening far afield, I never thought that it might be happening in my own back yard. I started interviewing some of the refugees there and they related their stories. I found myself feeling numb and unable to listen to the horrific experience that these people went through.

    I sat down with lot of questions to myself but no answers. Some of the questions I was asking myself was whether in our work (Sonke and other organisations) we will ever be able to change the belief that society has – and more especially men in this case – that violence is a solution. I came to realise that part of what was going on was that it wasn’t just xenophobic violence but was also about men expressing their manhood by attacking men and women.

    I found myself hearing over and again what one woman I interviewed said to me: “my baby is sick because we have been sleeping in the open since Saturday”. Then I thought of an innocent baby of four months whose father is South African has had to go through this because her mother happens to come from another part of Africa. She is not taking anyone’s job but just simply plying her trade as a hair dresser in the streets of the City of Gold and making our own mothers, sisters, girlfriends, wives, daughters and nieces beautiful.

    Still today I can’t believe that men – because of the stereotypes they are acting out and the type of power they seem to be celebrating – are making our hard gained democracy a mockery of the world. I am still shaken about what I saw and experienced at the Jeppe Police Station.

  • Staff Writing on Xenophobia: Thami

    As a South African born and bred in this country, it terrifies me that, we who had been terribly affected by the apartheid regime, turn around and involve ourselves in this barbaric act of physically causing harm to our fellow African brothers; emotionally abusing children and raping women who had done so much to rid this country of the apartheid regime. During our struggle we spoke and advocated for human rights which we continue to violate even in the new dispensation. Such hypocrisy should not be tolerated!

    The phenomenon that the politicians in this country have adopted is another cause for concern. The ruling party had been alerted of the looming attacks on the foreign national and as always instead of been pro-active they chose to be reactive. This has sprung out of control that they are struggling to contain, have we forgotten about our pledge to protecting and respecting human rights? Such fickle turn of events. Just like they had done on other issues like the electricity crisis, just like the initial attacks on the Somali nationals in the townships of Cape Town, before they even spread to Gauteng, they resorted to the keeping mum strategy.

    That was evident when I watched and listened to radio and television interviews where they had been invited to speak on the xenoprejudice attacks. The lack of political compassion is proving to detrimental to the wellbeing of the foreign nationals.

    The most disturbing piece for me was of a man who was burnt alive in some of the newspaper reports as that had a terrible flashback of the time when there was an internal fighting during the 1994 post apartheid era. I had to relive that and having witnessed that as a child of about 9, I had concluded that nobody irrespective of who or where the person comes from, they don’t deserve such ill treatment. Have we leant so little that we continue to rape and turn children to orphans?

    Why are we using refugees as a weapon to fight our battles with government who had failed to fulfil the promises they had made? This has nothing to do with foreign nationals taking our jobs as some have claimed is about the government failing to provide appropriate service delivery, creating jobs and elevating poverty; this is a backlash/retaliation against the government for failing the people. Watching 3rd degree last week made realise just how our politicians continue to drag their feet in bringing stability and putting an end to the whole revolt solely because they know that they are the ones that are hugely responsible for this. Has a human life become such so worthless that it’s easy to end a life? One Mozambican national got his head chopped off in the area that I live in, is that what we want to teach our children to treat other human beings?

    he least said about the media coverage the better. It concerns me to have such biased reporting and perpetuating such stereotypes about foreign nationals. Some of the reporting was constantly referring to the refugees as aliens, doesn’t that sound a lot like the same segregating names used that led to racism, classism and tribalism, all the names that have been used to degrade other nationals who are not considered to be native to the country in which they live.

    The closest I had gotten to the incidences was when I was working in the Lawley, at rank the Lenasia rank where I was using to commute to and from the trainings that I was conducting, a handful of taxi drivers attacked one guy who is a South African who just happened to be dark in skin colour. They physically assaulted him and it was pathetic to witness S.African women ululating to glorify such acts. They later discovered that he was a Xitsonga speaking South African after he was rescued by the police. If these attacks are about the skin colour, do we now treat people differently and condemning them to death? A personal reflection that brings tears to my eyes as I write this, what about the innocent lives of children, it really is a sad state of affairs that every South African should feel ashamed of.

    The truth is from the inside out, not from the outside in, let’s interrogate our hearts and think about what our role is to the wellbeing of the African continent and its people.

    South Africa is part of Africa and Africa belongs to everyone living in her comfort.

    Let’s stop these senseless and baseless attacks and killings and fight these demons who continue to commit such horrendous crimes against humanity…

    AFRICA UNITE!!!

  • Staff Writing on Xenophobia: Dudu

    I listened with shock to reports of xenophobic violence in Alexandra as I arrived back home in Johannesburg from an eleven day stay in Swaziland. I had been missing home. As strange as it may sound, I call Johannesburg home. After being in the city of gold for a year surely I can call it home? This sentiment however does not seem to be shared by those I consider my brothers and sisters. I am a foreigner; others even call me an alien. I wonder from which planet I fell from seeing I am from just across the river Limpopo.

    In my mind I thought it would end with Alexandra, it possibly could not spread to other areas. I was wrong. It spread like a wild fire, shouts came from all ends, newspapers were in business, the selling-story being refugees in crisis.

    Don’t they know, not all of us are refugees. Some of us are just migrants, some of us have identity documents others do not but that doesn’t make us less of a person does it? We have blood running through our veins just like you. We have loved ones, brothers, sisters, mothers and friends just like you. We have dreams, aspirations and ambitions just like you.

    he phone calls start, emails and sms’s. Everyone wants to know if I am safe. Well I am safe. Never in my life have I felt guilty about being safe like now. How is it that I am safe yet someone sleeps outside? Another is not sure if they will be alive tomorrow. Mobs may attack their area. Nobody knows who, where next the fire will spread to. Yet I remain safe and confident and my life goes on.

    Is there anything I can do? How can I help, can I help? No I cannot. I fear helping makes me vulnerable too. Is this how life is to be; that I preserve my life at all cost even though it means another will lose theirs? Is this really about foreigners?

    I choose not to believe I am under attack for speaking a different language, having darker skin or being taller. We all are responsible. We have allowed violence to go unpunished. We have allowed them to beat up, rape and kill women, AIDS activists, lesbians. Why should they not kill the foreigner he or she is not like them?

    Just wait and see tomorrow you will be the different one because you do not speak their language. Yes, you were born in South Africa but because you do not speak their language it will be your chance to burn. It will be your chance to burn if we do not stop this now! Violence never was the solution. Let’s fights the war, but at all costs let our weapon be peace which awards dignity to all.

  • Staff Writing on Xenophobia: Dean

    On Friday afternoon, the previously unimaginable became frighteningly real. All week an emergency coalition of civil society organisations had met in Cape Town to try and avert the kind of ethnic and xenophobic violence that had killed more than 30 people across Johannesburg the week before. At about 3:00PM in the middle of a meeting with colleagues in Johannesburg, my inbox began to fill with emails titled “Attacks in Strand: Kick in the Emergency Plan”, “Attack in Masiphumelele. Please support”, “XENOPHOBIC ATTACK ABOUT TO HAPPEN IN NY 6 GUGULETHU, CAPE TOWN”, “Shelter for 500 people Rondebosch needed”.

    As the plane approached Cape Town, mindful of the appalling necklacing perpetrated against two Mozambican men just five days earlier, I found myself scanning the lights to see whether fires were burning in the townships visible below. The apparent normality in Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Nyanga, Philipi, Strand, Du Noon and across the Cape Flats belied the mob violence raging below targeting especially Somali shopkeepers but also, as I’d learn the following day, Malawians, Zimbabweans, Congolese and Mozambicans as well as South Africans from outside of the Western Cape.

    Early Saturday morning, having been tasked with finding out how many displaced people had gathered at the Cape Town train station, we found that about 1500 people had come to the station to try and catch a train to Johannesburg and from there on to their home countries. Afraid that they’d be vulnerable to attacks at the station, Gary Mars and his colleagues at Metro Rail had housed people in their offices to keep them off the public platforms. In the morning, he’d then organized an additional six carriages to be added. When we walked down the platform, all fourteen carriages were full to capacity, dejected faces looking apprehensive about their safety on the journey ahead through the very same communities in which they had been terrorized.

    Back at the Foreshore end of the station about a hundred people, including many very small children, were huddled against their possessions in the far corner of the concourse unable to afford the R140 needed for a ticket and now uncertain about where they would spend the next twenty four hours until the next train. While many people had nothing more than small bags of clothes, some had been able to get some of their bigger household possessions, including a family from Malawi who had been able to bring their fridge, tables and chairs from their shack in Delft.

    My colleague Freddy and I talked to two young men from Maputo. Exhausted and reluctant to engage with us at all, they told us they had just arrived from Johannesburg the previous day to escape the violence there and now, disgusted with South Africans, were trying to get on the very next train back to Mozambique. Petros, a young Zimbabwean man who works at the Kennilworth Race Track, told us that he’d been confronted by a group of men armed with “metals, sticks and slashers”. Echoing what we would hear throughout the next 48 hours, he asked “how do I go back to my country? Zimbabwe is ruled by thugs too”. Another group of young men from Zimbabwe said they’d been told they would be killed if they didn’t leave. Printed notes, they said, were being posted on their doors telling them to leave immediately.

    Station officials indicated that people would not be able to spend the on the platform and made it clear that they would be moved outside by 10:00PM. Rondebosch United Church, who had received people the night before, indicated that they would again be able to accommodate people and assist with the coordination of overflow.

    However, many of the growing number of people on the platform expressed their reluctance to leave the station saying that they needed to be back for the 10:00 AM train the following morning and, in some cases, had incurred significant costs getting their possessions to the station.

    Starting at about 7:00, University of Cape Town’s Jammie Shuttle provided transport in 6 buses to about 200 people to a number of churches in Rondebosch including Rondebosch United, Common Ground, and St Paul’s. A small group of people initially indicated that they were going to simply spend the night on the sidewalk outside the station but after receiving assurances that Jammie Shuttles would pick them up and get them back to the station in time for their train, they somewhat reluctantly carried their bags across to the remaining shuttles leaving from the station just before 10:00 in the evening.

    On Sunday morning, thanks to help well beyond the scope usually offered by officials, Gary Wells had made sure that the family from Malawi with the fridge, tables and sound system were on the platform eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Shosholoza Meyl to take them out of Cape Town and the country. However, they were few of only a relatively small number of those transported the previous night who were visible back at the station.

    Calls to Jammie Shuttle drivers revealed that SAPS had instructed drivers to transport people to Soetwater out near Kommetjie, nearly an hour’s drive from the station. On a follow-up call to Captain Stoffels at SAPS, he insisted that people had only gone to Soetwater if they had requested. Volunteers at the Church, however, reported that it seemed less clear whether people were being offered a choice or not. A briefing at the Human Rights Commission on Monday morning indicated that SAPS had put significant pressure on people to move to far-flung areas.

    While both the City and the Province have acted quickly to defuse the violence, some of the decisions made need to be reconsidered. Cape Town mayor Helen Zille indicated on a phone call that she would not open community centres because doing so “would interrupt wedding plans” and she was not willing to do that. By moving people to far-flung areas, the Mayor appears to have prioritized protecting the interests of her middle class constituents and inadvertently colluded with the agenda of xenophobic mobs by moving people to places from which reintegration is made very difficult and from which people can not get to their jobs, schools or vital health services. As of Monday morning she appears to have changed her position and is now appropriately prioritizing reintegration.

    Across the city, on occasions we’re now seeing behaviour from officials that reflect the longstanding contempt with which government has all too often treated refugees over many years. We hear reports that the Department of Foreign Affairs officials are sometimes using the crisis to put pressure on people to repatriate. In Johannesburg a child housed at the Cleveland Police Station died over the weekend from Pneumonia. Displaced people in the safety camps in Cape Town face serious health risks including diarrhea, the spread of infectious diseases and the disruption of HIV and TB treatment. In the midst of this, neither the city nor the province has demonstrated that it has a health plan of any sort.

    Filling the gap caused by the lack of political leadership, the Treatment Action Campaign, the AIDS Rights Alliance for Southern Africa, Sonke Gender Justice, PASSOP, Habonim, Medicin San Frontier, Shawco and hundreds of volunteers worked flat out over the weekend to collect blankets, food, sanitary supplies, carry out health assessments and ensure the provision of basic services.

    These organisations, though, have made it clear that they do not have capacity to continue their efforts much beyond this Tuesday. They are now calling on the UN system and government to act immediately to carry out their mandates to ensure safety and the provision of material support. They are now issuing the following calls:

    • The South African Police Services must protect people and their property from xenophobic attacks and accompany people to return to their homes to recover their possessions. Officers not doing their jobs must be held accountable to the full extent of the law.
    • UNHCR must come into the camps and shelters to help document so that we know the scale of the crisis, provide the necessary assistance and offer technical advice and assistance to government.
    • City and Province must present a health plan within 72 hours to address the infectious disease risks inherent in putting people into congregant settings can spread very easily. Where possible, people should be kept in sites that are in the city and provide easy access to services, jobs and education.
    • Where possible, refugees should be kept in the communities in which they were living and linked to health services there. Where this is not possible, camp services should be kept close to health and social facilities.
    • Registration should be done only by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and should include assistance with securing essential documentation destroyed during mob violence.

    The urgency of the response, the fear that additional attacks might occur and the horror caused by the events of the last two weeks have kept us focused on urgent responses rather than political analysis. What seems clear though is that years of poor government service delivery combined with a political vacuum created by intra-ANC conflict and longstanding xenophobic practices by government, including raids on churches providing shelter to migrants and refugees, has allowed xenophobic attitudes to metastasize.

  • Men and the care economy

    Sonke co-director recently participated in a panel discussion on the “The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS” held during the 52nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

    >> read Dean’s presentation

  • Noord Taxi Rank Drivers Should be Charged with Rape

    The organisations below were shocked by media reports on the violent attacks suffered by the young women at the hands of taxi drivers at Noord Taxi Rank. The reports also highlighted the fact that witnesses and security guards did nothing to help the women. Some indicated that there was no point in calling the police, as they have not attended the calls when similar crimes took place in the past.

    We have become accustomed to reports about rape in the country, but this can not excuse inaction. Sexual violence constitutes a gross violation of women’s human rights and has long-lasting and devastating effects. It should be swiftly condemned by all South Africans – especially those who witness it in public places – and should lead to immediate action from the criminal justice system.

    The organisations below applaud the courage of the young woman who dared denounce the practice which seems to be a standard ‘hobby’ for some taxi drivers. We would also like to commend the media who rightfully exposed the crime on its cover pages.

    We welcome the condemning declarations of Mr Scelo Mabaso, chairperson of the Top Six Taxi Association. However, we challenge the Top Six Taxi Association to act accordingly. Mr Mabaso urged the women to come forward and lay criminal charges, but we urge that the following concrete actions be taken by his organisation:

    1. Conduct a thorough investigation to find the criminals among his members and lay criminal charges against them. Reports by the media indicated that some of the taxi drivers had introduced their fingers in the women’s vaginas. These actions amount to rape according to the recently passed Sexual Offences Act, and the drivers should be charged accordingly.
    2. Investigate the role of the security guards employed at the Taxi Rank who, as per the media and witness accounts, did nothing to prevent the crime.
    3. Develop and implement an educational campaign on sexual violence and gender-sensitivity addressed to all its drivers.

    Media declarations are good only if followed by concrete actions. We expect the Top Six Taxi Association to take concrete measures to stop these types of violations against women by taxi drivers from occurring. These measures would go a long way to prevent further damage to the image of thousands of taxi drivers who –  we are convinced –  do not share the behaviour of these thugs among their ranks.

    Media Contact People

    • Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation – Collet Ngwane/Angelica Pino – 011 403 5650
    • Sonke Gender Justice – Sgidi Sibeko – 011 339 3589
    • Genderlinks – Colleen Lowe Morna or Loveness Jambaya – 011 622 2877

    Issued by the following One in Nine Campaign:

    • Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation
    • Forum for the Empowerment of Women
    • Gender Links
    • Masimanyane Women’s Support Centre
    • One Man Can Campaign
    • OUT LGBT Well-Being
    • People Opposing Women Abuse
    • Sonke Gender Justice
    • SANGOCO
    • The Open Disclosure Foundation
    • Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme
    • The AIDS Legal Network
    • Women & Men Against Child Abuse

  • Changemakers Competition

    The Sonke Gender Justice is participating in the Ashoka Changemakers “Young Men at Risk: Transforming the Power of a Generation” competition. Read the One Man Can entry now, and prepare to vote on 22 February 2008.

    >> One Man Can Campaign

  • BBC reports on Sexual Violence in SA

    Listen to the BBC World Service’s podcast on Sexual Violence in South Africa, by David Goldblatt or read the accompanying article on Tackling South Africa’s Rape Culture.

    >> listen to the podcast
    >> read the article

  • Sonke Gender Justice Annual Report 2006/2007

    The Sonke Gender Justice is proud to release its 2006/2007 Annual Report outlining the activities and growth of the organisation during its first year.

    >> download the annual report

  • Women Deliver Conference

    Thoko Budaza, youth representative to the Sonke board of directors has been asked to give the closing plenary address at the Women Deliver Conference in London Oct 18-20.

  • National Men’s Health Seminar

    In September, Sonke Gender Justice joined the DOH at a national seminar on men’s reproductive health.

    >> read the report from this imbizo

  • Civil Society Outrage Over the Dismissal of the Deputy Minister of Health

    The JCSMF which represents and is supported by over 20 civil society, health and research institutions and organisations in South Africa strongly condemn the dismissal of Ms Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge from her position as Deputy Minister of Health.

    At the 10th JCSMF meeting held on the eve of the 3rd SA AIDS Conference in June 2007, the former Deputy Minister of Health, agreed to open the meeting and speak about the role of partnerships in keeping the National Strategic Plan (NSP) alive. To date, she has been the only high ranking official in the national department of health to have agreed to attend and address such a meeting of civil society, health and research organisations. She has always been available to support efforts to contain the epidemic. This is characteristic of her tenure at the National Department of Health where often she has been one of very few health officials to act in a transparent, approachable, open and accountable manner.

    In her address to the JCSMF, Ms Madlala-Routledge spoke about ensuring that partnerships are created to achieve the important targets that are set out in the NSP. She stated:

    “Like you I am encouraged that the NSP sets ambitious prevention, care and treatment targets and that it makes important commitments to processes that include much needed policy, human rights and law reform. But, like you – now that the paper work is done – I want to ensure that the inclusiveness, the commitments and the implementation continues and commences. The NSP itself states that its key guiding principles include supportive leadership and effective partnerships. It specifically states that all sectors of government and all stakeholders of civil society shall be involved in the AIDS response. It therefore opens the way for much needed engagement with all sectors in our society.”

    Contrary to the statements from the Presidency, she has been a team player – she has done so by earning the respect of leading health academics, researchers, scientists, doctors, lawyers, health care workers, people living with HIV/AIDS and other users of the public health sector. Unlike other officials in the Department of Health, she has described situations how she perceives them to be and not brush matters of life and death under the carpet of political expediency. Her role was not to score political points. She knew no fear when she listened to protestors or patients in Khayelitsha or elsewhere. Over the years, she has shown respect for the work that civil society and all people living with HIV/AIDS are doing to prevent new infections and to treat existing infections. She has bravely spoken truth to power by challenging HIV/AIDS denialism, supporting evidence based interventions, publicly testing for HIV, engaging fully with civil society, and condemning confusing and ambiguous messaging on HIV/AIDS. She has rightly put the issue of our failing health crisis firmly before the nation, when many other health professionals are afraid of doing the same for the real fear of losing their job too.

    We believe that her dismissal, despite the high esteem with which she is held by a wide cross-section of health care workers, community based organisations and other civil society players, is a major setback to the development of a unified national response to HIV/AIDS, so crucial to the effective implementation of the NSP. Instead it will fuel a climate of fear amongst people working in the public health sector and prevent them from speaking up about HIV/AIDS and the health crisis we face as a country. This is not the type of society we want to live in nor is it the one we all fought for.

    The JCSMF will therefore support on going international and regional petitions of protest against her dismissal.

    The founding members of the JCSMF endorse this statement:

    • AIDS Law Project
    • Health Systems Trust
    • Centre for Health Policy
    • Institute for Democracy in South Africa
    • Open Democracy Advice Centre
    • Treatment Action Campaign
    • UCT School of Public Health & Family Medicine
    • Public Service Accountability Monitor
    • Médecins Sans Frontières.

    This statement is also endorsed by: 

    • The AIDS Consortium
    • Wits Pediatric HIV Clinics (WPHC)
    • Southern African HIV/AIDS Clinician Society (SAHCS)
    • School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape
    • People’s Health Movement
    • Positive Women Network
    • Sonke Gender Justice

    CAPRISA

    For more information, please contact:

    • Fatima Hassan (2000ALP) 083 279 9962
    • Professor Helen Schneider (2000CHP) 083 275 0277
    • Professor David Saunders (2000PHM) 082 202 3316

  • WHO says world must step up violence prevention

    Countries around the world need to scale-up domestic violence prevention and make a concerted effort to measure violence-related deaths, injuries and health conditions, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). In Third Milestones of a Global Campaign for Violence Prevention Report 2007, the agency reviews progress since the 2002 creation of the Global Campaign for Violence Prevention, assessing how far the world has come and where more work is needed.

    “Beyond an increased awareness of the burden of violence-related deaths and physical injuries, the last five years have witnessed a major growth in the understanding of how violence contributes to a wide spectrum of non-injury health consequences and health risk behaviours across the entire lifespan,” it says.

    Although much remains to be done, the report notes considerable progress. By 2007, three of the six WHO regional committees had adopted violence prevention resolutions, more than 25 countries had developed reports and/or plans of action on violence and health, and more than 100 officially appointed health ministry focal persons were in place to prevent violence, the report finds.

    The report offers a five year agenda to follow-up on key recommendations. WHO recommends that countries:

    • Create, implement and monitor national action plans for violence prevention;
    • Enhance capacity for collecting data on violence;
    • Define properties for, and support research on, the causes, consequences, costs and prevention of violence;
    • Promote primary prevention responses;
    • Strengthen responses for victims of violence;
    • Integrate violence prevention into social and educational policies, and thereby promote gender and social equality;
    • Increase collaboration and exchange of information on violence prevention;
    • Promote and monitor adherence to international treaties, laws and other mechanisms to promote human rights; and
    • Seek practical, internationally agreed to responses to the global drug trade and global arms trade.

    In 2003, WHO emphasised collaboration among the diverse violence prevention organisations and individuals. In 2004, it promoted the “need for rigorous methodological guidelines in order to better estimate the economic impacts of violence and monitor the cost-effectiveness of prevention strategies.” In 2005, it stressed the need for systematically designed prevention programs. Its 2006 report reinforced that investing in violence prevention can pay sizeable dividends. This year’s report offers lessons learned throughout the process.

    Director-General of the World Health Organisation Margaret Chan notes, “Visible results for violence prevention builds confidence, and in turn, the political commitment and momentum required to intensify and expand the prevention of violence.”

    To view the new report, please visit http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2007/9789241595476_eng.pdf.

    Taken from the Family Violence Prevention Fund Newsletter, Speaking Up, 13 August 2003

  • WHO research

    New WHO research shows that programmes targeted at men are helping men to change sexist, risky and violent behaviour.

    Read more.

  • Global Coalition on Women and AIDS

    Sonke Gender Justice co-Director, Dean Peacock, will be addressing the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS Leadership Council Meeting on 3 July 2007 in Nairobi. The meeting is aimed at imparting new information on strengthening HIV programming for women and girls and energising and seeking inputs from leaders in a range of sectors to enhance HIV programming and advocacy for women and girls.

  • Co-Founders Win “Best Man” Award

    Co-founders of Sonke Gender Justice, Bafana Khumalo and Dean Peacock, have received top honours in the Public Service Category in the 2007 Men’s Health “Best Man” awards.

  • Involving the Other

    Read the report “Involving the Other: A Case Study of the Men as Partners Program in Kwazulu-Natal“.

  • SA Slips

    South Africa has failed to protect its women from violent crime and needs to jack up its approach to gender equality.

    The Sonke Gender Justice Network, a leading South African-based monitoring group made these scathing findings in a country report tabled at the 51st session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York this week. The call comes as South Africa slipped two notches in international ratings, to find itself counted among the worst transgressors of women’s rights in the world.

    Even though South Africa had made strides in appointing women to key positions in the public and private sectors, the report said gender violence in the country had reached alarming heights. A staggering 326 620 women and children were victims of crime last year.

    Crime statistics in South Africa showed that women and children continued to bear the brunt of crimes in six categories: murder, attempted murder, rape, common assault, indecent assault and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

    The report, which was compiled on behalf of the Presidency, said low conviction rates for rape and domestic violence cases suggested that perpetrators continued to commit violence against women with relative impunity.

    It said the government needed to increase its budgetary allocation for law enforcement and increase funding for gender work. In the past three years South Africa has gone from 90 to 92 on the gender development index. Norway, Iceland, Australia, Ireland and Sweden led the way, as countries where women enjoyed more equal treatment.

    Burkina Faso, Mali, Sierra Leone and Niger were at the bottom of the list. The ranking looked at the adult literacy rate, the combined primary to tertiary education gross enrolments ratio and estimated income.

    Norway, Iceland and Australia have 99% adult literacy for both men and women, an equal ratio of enrolments at educational institutions between men and women, and women earn almost the same income as men. But in Mali, Sierra Leone and Niger, there is a gaping difference between the development of men and women.

    Mali has only 11% literacy among women compared with 26% for its men. Thirty percent of enrolments at educational institutions were for women compared with 40% for men.

    The survey indicates that in Sierra Leone 24% of women are literate compared with 46% of men, and 55% of women enrol at educational institutions compared with 75% men. In Niger 15% of women are literate compared with 42% of men and 18% of women enrol at educational institutions compared with 25% of men.

    Although South Africa was ahead of most African countries, it was still far behind other middle-income countries such as Mexico, Thailand and Uruguay. Egypt, Mauritius, Tunisia, Cape Verde and Algeria pipped South Africa to sixth place in the continental ratings.

    Sonke’s co-founder Bafana Khumalo said gender transformation in the country would remain elusive until men were recognised as an important part of the process. “Unless we challenge men to be responsible and talk to them about gender issues, it’s going to take a long time to change,” said Khumalo.

    Gender activists this week reacted with concern at the country’s drop in international ranking. Lisa Vetten, a researcher for the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre to End Violence Against Women, said it underscored the weak implementation of good policies and the country’s reliance on the criminal justice system.

    “Essentially, this drop suggests that the gap between rhetoric and reality remains unchanged, and that perhaps even a kind of stagnation or paralysis has set in,” she said. “We need more solutions than just the criminal justice system,” added Vetten. Spokesman for the Commission for Gender Equality, Yvonne Mogadime, said that at a recent conference, delegates had identified pervasive and deep-rooted patriarchy as the most serious impediment to the advancement of women and gender equality in South Africa.

    Only 10 years for raping a girl

    Despite life sentences being mandatory, children’s abusers are getting lesser punishments, writes Khadija Bradlow.

    It was a sweltering December afternoon in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, when Mpho Skosana (not her real name) went looking for her playmate in a neighbouring shack.

    Among the misshapen Lego blocks of poverty and deprivation, the four year-old went looking for laughter with her friend.

    Instead, she was raped. Her friend wasn’t home, but his 38-year-old father was. “I tried to cried [sic] but he threatened to kill me if I don’t keep quiet,” the little girl testified, according to a social worker’s report.

    The child’s sister took her to the Victim Empowerment Centre at the Alexandra Police Station, where a doctor confirmed she was the victim of a sexual attack. The social worker’s report details a pathetic convergence of circumstances that led to the child being raped: “poverty” is listed in the section titled “environmental circumstances”. The child’s mother had died a year earlier, leaving her in the care of an alcoholic father and six siblings, most of them already in their late teens.

    Mpho’s rapist went on trial in 2004 and was sentenced to only 10 years in jail – this despite the Criminal Law Amendment Act obliging courts to sentence rapists of children to life imprisonment, unless they find “justified and compelling circumstances” to warrant the imposition of a lesser sentence. The legislation was enacted in 1997 to impose harsh penalties on those found guilty of certain serious crimes including the rape of a minor. The reality, however, is that a wide interpretation of what constitutes “justified and compelling circumstances” has resulted in inconsistency in the sentencing of sexual offenders.

    The Act does not outline specifically what qualifies as such circumstances, leading to a variety of seemingly arbitrary factors being taken into account by courts when handing down sentence.

    Mpho’s rape and similar others are examples of cases that Elizabeth Mokoena has taken on. Mokoena works for ADAPT, an anti-sexual violence NGO based at the Alexandra Victim Empowerment Centre. She showed the Sunday Times a list of cases involving sexual crimes against minors where the regional courts had failed to impose life sentences and instead issued fines or shorter jail terms.

    In one case, the rapist of a 10-year-old was sentenced to 10 years. In another, a perpetrator who raped his two-year-old niece, was given 18 years. Such inconsistency in the sentencing of sexual offenders where the complainant is a minor is contained in a series of reports, released by the Open Society Foundation, on the impact of the minimum-sentencing legislation.

    According to the reports, one of the successes of the Criminal Law Amendment Act has been with regard to the application of minimum sentencing in rape cases. The number of prisoners serving sentences for sexual crimes increased from fewer than 10 000 in 1995 to just below 20 000 by 2005. A significant proportion of them are serving life sentences.

    Prior to 2000, notes a report, “there were virtually no prisoners serving life sentences for sexual crimes, but by the end of 2002, the number of prisoners serving life sentences overtook the prisoners serving determinate sentences of longer than 20 years for sexual crimes”.

    Michelle O’Sullivan, an advocate for the Women’s Legal Centre, argues that despite this increase in convictions, “judges have departed from legislative benchmarks” with regard to sexual offences.

    She says the limiting of judicial discretion in respect of certain rape cases has not stopped judges reverting to stereotypical assumptions about women and relying on “rape myths”, such as the complainant’s previous sexual history and a prior relationship with the offender.

    An example of this is the case of the State vs Mvamvu before the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2005. The offender had repeatedly abducted and raped his common-law wife, who had also obtained a domestic violence protection order against him. The judges held that the customary-law marriage of the accused and the complainant was a compelling circumstance to justify a lesser sentence.

    Gender Development Index

    Top 10 Countries

    1. Norway
    2. Iceland
    3. Australia
    4. Ireland
    5. Sweden
    6. Luxembourg
    7. Canada
    8. United States
    9. Netherlands
    10. Switzerland

    Bottom 10 Countries

    1. Zambia
    2. Malawi
    3. Mozambique
    4. Burundi
    5. Democratic Republic of Congo
    6. Chad
    7. Central African Republic
    8. Burkina Faso
    9. Mali
    10. Sierra Leone
    11. Niger

  • South Africa Country Report to the UN CSW 2007

    frontpage image for the SA country report

    The South Africa Country Report to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, 2007 was prepared by Donald Ambe, Vanja Karth, Bafana Khumalo, Eleanor McNab, Dean Peacock, and Jean Redpath. The report was prepared by Sonke Gender Justice on behalf of the Office on the Status of Women, Office of the Presidency, Government of the Republic of South Africa, for the 51st Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, New York, March 2007.

    Read the Executive Summary below, including a breakdown of the key themes and key recommendations in the report, or download the complete report.

    Executive Summary

    At the 48th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in 2004, the South Africa government and the governments of other participating countries made formal commitments to implementing a range of recommendations aimed at “involving men and boys in achieving gender equality”.

    These commitments made at the UN CSW are consistent with the values enshrined in the South African Constitution and core to the goals of South Africa’s new democratic dispensation.

    However, in South Africa, as throughout the world, gender inequality continues to undermine democracy, impede development and compromise people’s lives in dramatic ways. Indeed many studies show that contemporary gender roles and especially rigid notions of manhood contribute to gender based violence and other forms of gender inequality and exacerbate the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS. In 2007, the country continues to face high levels of gender based violence, an HIV and AIDS epidemic and deeply entrenched gender inequalities.

    In the face of this, government and civil society organisations have begun to put in place a range of initiatives intended to increase men’s involvement in achieving gender equality. Reflecting this, a growing number of South African men have begun to take action in private and public ways to reject rape and domestic violence and to create a more gender equitable society.

    Key themes emerging from report:

    1. Growing numbers of men are taking a stand against gender based violence and for gender equality. Despite high levels of male violence against women, many men care deeply about the women in their lives including their partners, family members, co-workers, neighbours and community members. Given this, many men are eager to challenge customs and practices that endanger women’s health and support the well being of women.
    2. Groundbreaking work with men to achieve gender equality is occurring across South Africa. South Africa is widely recognised as hosting some of the most important interventions and research focusing on men and gender equality of any country in the world. The National Gender Machinery has established a Working Group on Men and Gender Equality tasked with multi-sectoral training and coordination. Within civil society, interventions such as the Men as Partners Network and Stepping Stones are widely described in international public health literature as best practices. Similarly, researchers have produced an impressive body of literature on men and gender in South Africa, focusing on issues such as gender based violence, HIV and AIDS, fatherhood and shifting notions of masculinity.
    3. There is visible support by some senior government officials for work with men – but more sustained commitment needed. Senior government officials have shown important leadership and have made public commitments to engaging men in achieving gender equality. Former President Nelson Mandela attended the fi rst national men’s march in 1997. President Thabo Mbeki has also made clear his commitment to engaging men in a number of important speeches – including during his second inaugural speech. Amongst others, Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan, and Premier of the Western Cape, Ebrahim Rasool, have both been proactive in supporting work with men. However, there is still a need for greater levels of commitment amongst senior political figures and senior management on issues of gender, and a particular need for men to take these issues on board.
    4. Widespread adoption of work with men within government departments has occurred. There is evidence that different South African government departments have recognised that work with men is important and have launched a number of different initiatives aimed at involving men in achieving gender equality. For instance,9 society organisations should engage in dialogue to develop a clear set of principles for working with men to achieve gender equality. A preliminary list might include the following: recognise that men have a stake in changing and can be important allies in achieving gender equality; be accountable to, supportive of and in ongoing dialogue with women’s rights organisations; be committed to internal accountability through agreed upon code of conduct; emphasise a rights based and social justice approach; affirm gay rights and make the connection between homophobia and rigid models of masculinity. The Department of Health launched the Men in Partnership Against AIDS initiative in 2002; the Department of Social Development launched the Men in Action Campaign in partnership with the National Network on Violence Against Women; the OSW spearheaded the development of the Men and Gender Equality Working Group within the National Gender Machinery and both the Department of Correctional Services and the Department of Provincial and Local Government have actively involved men during their respective 16 Days of Activism campaigns.
    5. There is a need for greater clarity of purpose about the goals of work with men, as well as increased coordination and planning. Despite evidence that government departments recognise that work with men is important, many initiatives have faltered due to a lack of capacity. Problems related to capacity, clarity of purpose, coordination, quality of work and long-term commitment indicate the need for additional capacity building.
    6. Men’s violence against women remains unacceptably pervasive. Government has been unable to adequately address men’s violence against women. Indeed reported rates of domestic and sexual violence have increased steadily since 1994. This has led to charges that the government has not made suffi cient efforts to address violence against women. Critics contend that when 90 percent of rapists and nearly two thirds of men who kill their intimate partner go unpunished, government inadvertently sends a message to perpetrators that, in all likelihood, they can commit violence against women with relative impunity.
    7. Greater dialogue and accountability between organisations working with men and women’s rights organisations is needed. Very few organisations working with men engage in regular dialogue with women’s rights advocates. Particularly when organisations working with men espouse paternalistic attitudes about men “needing to protect women”, this lack of dialogue and accountability has alienated important potential allies in the women’s advocacy sector.
    8. Current efforts to increase men’s involvement in achieving gender equality rely too heavily on workshops and community outreach. Government and civil society efforts to engage men are frequently overly narrow in their approaches and are often limited to conducting workshops without due attention to audience, followup or community involvement. To date, organisations working with men have only occasionally used other important change strategies like advocacy for policy change or rights-based activism. These are particularly important in addressing structural issues such as education, housing, social welfare and unemployment. Working to include all ‘men’ in gender initiatives is a challenge, particularly reaching those in rural areas.
    9. Efforts to involve boys in achieving gender equality should be expanded. Work to involve boys in achieving gender equality currently receives very little attention from either government or civil society. While civil society organisations and government do off er general diversion services to boys and girls who have been in conflict with the law, the absence of the passage of the Child Justice Bill means it is still only a minority of children in conflict with the law who benefit from diversion programmes. The Bill aim to create the context for community and victim involvement, protect young people after arrest, provide diversion programmes that teach offenders different values and alternative role models, and provides for restorative justice for victims, off enders and the community.
    10. South African funding for gender equality work with men is insufficient while some international funding comes with strings attached. South African government funding for work with men and boys tends to be short-term, event specific and ad-hoc. This increases civil society dependence on foreign donors, some of whom pursue prescriptive approaches that fi t poorly with local realities.
    11. Not enough work with men taking place in rural parts of the country or with traditional leaders. Much of the work taking place with men occurs in urban and peri-urban areas leaving rural areas where 40% of South Africans live. In these areas, traditional leaders play a particularly important role and oversee the traditional justice systems and structures which, in rural areas, continue to be used more regularly than the formal criminal justice system.
    12. Very little work with men addresses broader socio-economic conditions exacerbating gender inequalities. Government and civil society have not paid enough attention to the connection between men’s violence, HIV/AIDS and broader socio-economic forces. More research and interventions are needed that focus on how gender roles and relations in South Africa are situated in a socio-economic context characterised by high levels of inequality, endemic levels of generalised violence, poor health outcomes and limited social welfare services.

    Key Recommendations:

    “Gender equality, development and peace in the 21st century”

    These recommendations are addressed to all stakeholders identified in the 2004 CSW commitments, namely: “Governments and, as appropriate, the relevant funds and programmes, organisations and specialised agencies of the United Nations system, the international financial institutions, civil society, including the private sector and nongovernmental organisations, and other stakeholders”.

    1. Intensify efforts to end men’s violence against women and to involve men in achieving gender equality: Extremely high rates of gender based violence and the urgency of the HIV and AIDS crisis demand that government, civil society and the private sector strengthen their commitment to increasing men’s involvement in achieving gender equality. This will require greater budgetary allocations to support the enforcement of existing legislation and to increase funding for gender equality work.
    2. Develop a clear set of principles to guide work with men. Government and civil society organisations should engage in dialogue to develop a clear set of principles for working with men to achieve gender equality. A preliminary list might include the following: recognise that men have a stake in changing and can be important allies in achieving gender equality; be accountable to, supportive of and in ongoing dialogue with women’s rights organisations; be committed to internal accountability through agreed upon code of conduct; emphasise a rights based and social justice approach; affirm gay rights and make the connection between homophobia and rigid models of masculinity.
    3. Use and expand the mandates of existing policy frameworks to strengthen coordination and planning. Since 1994 government has put in place a number of policy frameworks to foster gender equality and to facilitate citizen involvement in achieving development goals. These include the National and Provincial Gender Machineries, the National Policy Framework for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality of 2002 and the Municipal Structures Act of 1998. Government and the National Gender Machinery (NGM) should strengthen and support these by mainstreaming within theme efforts to involve men and boys in achieving gender equality. In particular, the OSW should utilise the NGM Working Group on Men and Gender Equality so that it can carry out the coordination and training role intended for it.
    4. Foster closer collaboration between women’s advocacy organisations and organisations working with men to achieve gender equality: Closer dialogue and accountability offers the potential for closer collaboration, more rigorous work with men and hopefully greater success in achieving gender equality.
    5. Tailor interventions to address different groups of men: Results from a survey conducted by Sonke Gender Justice indicate that some men appear eager to play a more involved role in ending violence against women while other men appear threatened by gender transformation. Violence prevention interventions need to be tailored to respond to the perceptions of these different groups of men, providing more gender equitable men with the necessary support, skills and resources to act on their convictions while challenging the myths and misconceptions held by those men who resist change.
    6. Augment workshops and community education approaches by employing a broader range of social change strategies including rights based advocacy and community mobilisation to demand an end to men’s violence against women. Shifting public perception that gender based violence affects us all and cannot be dismissed as a “women’s issue” requires that men become more visible and outspoken about their opposition to gender based violence and demonstrate their willingness to take public stands against it-by joining marches, by engaging the media and by taking concerted efforts at the local level to demand justice.
    7. Implement integrated, systems focused approaches. Working with men and boys to change deeply held beliefs about gender roles and relations requires comprehensive, multifaceted strategies – including approaches that focus on structural factors such as education, housing and unemployment. Government has a leadership role to play in promoting and supporting this kind of collaborative work.
    8. Provide consistent, reliable and coordinated funding that promotes sustainable approaches and organisations: Far too many organisations working with men are hampered in their efforts by precarious funding or by ideological restrictions which accompany donor funding. The South African government should provide multi-year funding that encourages organisational development and promotes effective, rigorously monitored interventions.10
    9. Build capacity with the public sector to engage men and boys in achieving gender equality. Government should support partnerships between civil society organisations working with men and the national and regional governments. South African Management Development Institute (SAMDI), the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and the Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) to train key representatives of government to engage men.
    10. Expand efforts to engage boys and young men in achieving gender equality. Primary prevention and early intervention strategies should be put in place to strengthen new families, meet the needs of children exposed to violence and identify and support at-risk youth. International public health literature indicates that these approaches are effective and they are consistent with the commitments made throughout the South African Constitution to promote and protect human rights.
    11. Build the youth capacity to assert leadership on increasing gender equality. Young men and women are often in the forefront of efforts to address gender based violence and the gendered dimensions of HIV and AIDS. Using its learnership model, government should make a commitment to developing the next generation of gender and AIDS leaders.
    12. Launch a “Men and HIV Services campaign” to increase men’s use of HIV services. The Department of Health should convene a key stakeholder meeting to identify and develop evidence based strategies for increasing men’s utilisation of HIV services-especially STI treatment, HIV testing, ARV uptake and male circumcision. This should include a national task force on male circumcision as well as partnerships with existing media and social marketing organisations to develop messages that encourage men to pursue health seeking behaviours and challenge the attitudes and values contributing to gender based violence.
    13. Increase men and gender equality work in rural areas – especially with traditional leaders. 40% of South Africans still live in rural areas yet very little work with men on gender occurs in these parts of the country. efforts should be made to integrate work with men into existing rural structures, programmes and services – including traditional healers and leaders, traditional justice systems, agricultural extension programmes and rural schools.
    14. Support rigorous monitoring and evaluation of work involving men and boys. Both government and civil society must prioritise documenting and evaluating the work that they implement which involves men and boys to achieve gender equality. As well as the opportunity to share lessons and experiences, such evaluations will help to avoid duplication, encourage collaboration and guide the development of future work.

  • Reproductive Health Survey documenting research into Khayelitsha men’s health

    Visit the Reproductive Health Month Survey Blog documenting research into men’s health in Khayelitsha.

  • Closing the gap: Gender-Based Violence in South Africa

    Read the Irin Plus article “Closing the gap: Gender-Based Violence in South Africa“.