As we enter Women’s month we are plagued by the increasing statistics of gender-based violence in the country. According to the Provincial Democratic Alliance, every eight hours a woman is murdered in South Africa by an intimate partner or spouse and one in every five women are affected by domestic violence with a mere 2% of protection orders being enforced.
Statistics also say the murder rate for women has increased by a staggering 117% from 2015 to 2017 and cases of sexual offences have increased by 53%. Federal Deputy Leader of the Democratic Alliance Women’s Network (DAWN) Safiyia Stanfley says it is concerning that statistics continue to grow at such alarming heights. “What is demoralizing is not just to realize how many women are victims of violence, but how deeply they have been let down by the government. We are often told that financial constraints limit the response that government can give to victims of domestic violence,” said Stanfley in a statement published by the DA in the Province.
The Deputy Leader of DAWN went on to say that it was worrisome that South Africans had become so desensitized to the scourge of gender-based violence. “We are familiar, too familiar, with the statistics. It should not be this hard to be safe. It should not be this easy to be beaten, raped and abused. It should not be this hard for perpetrators of violence against women to be tracked down. And when they are, it should not be this easy for them to get off scot-free,” said Stanfley. Stanfley added that as a member of DAWN, she regularly comes into contact with victims of gender-based violence in the province. For Stanfley these women are not just statistics or percentages. “We know the faces of abuse intimately,” she continued.
Stanfley reiterated that it was the National governments duty to make the country safe for South African women. “There’s money to fund shelters for victims of domestic violence so they can flee from abusive homes. If there’s money to deploy 81 protectors for each former president and his spouse, there’s money to deploy enough SAPS members to police stations so that complaints of rape and assault can be handled properly.”
Stanfley further added that women in the province and the country as a whole should not feel downtrodden at their plight but instead tell their stories to inspire other victims and future survivors of abuse by telling their stories. “Each story should be used as motivation for us to do the work of DAWN and to continue raising our voices in the fight for change,” she concluded.
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