Harsher penalties needed for GBV

29 November 2019

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape is calling for harsher penalties for abusers and better care for victims to be implemented by all relevant authorities.

Following a visit to Colesberg last weekend, I came across two separate households where gender-based violence continues unabated, in spite of the 16 Days of Activism Against Women and Children Campaign.

I remain very concerned for the wellbeing of both victims, who have been failed by the current system.

In the first instance, there is the case of a mother and her baby son, who succumb to alcohol induced abuse by the child’s father, every weekend, most notably when alcohol comes into the equation. The baby even found itself in hospital on one occasion when the mother, who was under physical attack by the child’s father, dropped him.

While police are well aware of the situation and are frequently called out to the home in question, they have threatened to throw the mother in jail because she allows the perpetrator into her home.

In the second instance, a woman who was paralysed on one side of her body, after being involved in a vicious attack whereby she had her throat slit, continues to face abuse by her present-day husband. She recently fell when he was chasing her and hit her head. She also has knife marks on her body to testify to the suffering that she endures in her own home.

It is heartbreaking that there is no way out for both of these women. It is further disturbing that the authorities are not interested in curbing the abuse, which they so frequently witness.

Why are the victims scrutinised and threatened and not the perpetrators? Why have the police not reported these incidents to other stakeholders, such as the Department of Social Development, for them to institute some kind of intervention? Why does everybody still turn a blind eye to gender-based violence?

We can only wonder how many more women and children must die before this scourge is taken seriously.

The DA has been gathering signatures from the respective community and intends handing over a petition to the local police station once we have garnered enough support.

It is time that the police stop treating abusers with kid gloves.

It is also time that the police, who frequently find themselves at the frontline of abuse, expand their scope of responsibility by being mandated to report chronic cases of violence and abuse to departments, such as Social Development, that can then initiate various forms of counselling to victims and perpetrators alike, check if the environment is indeed safe for children, and also assist in helping the victim escape her circumstances by facilitating a transfer to a shelter.

These are the type of discussions that we need to start. Without a genuine sense of care and without the development and implementation of practical policies, women and children will continue to endure daily attacks on their lives.

Issued by Fawzia Rhoda, DA Councillor at Emthanjeni Municipality, 29 November 2019