Gender based violence in South Africa.

South Africa is notorious for high rate of Gender Based Violence (GBV). Unfortunatley for the women, children, and the LGBTI society, this violence is being nornalised. Unfortunately, many cultures accept the violence against women and children within certain settings or situations. This then make it challenging to address GBV effectively.

The cause of this violence date back to the past when when human lives did not matter. South Africa has a traumatising past where people were dehumanised. Seemingly, South Africa has no intentions of healing from this past, as the act of demunisation is continually being practised. There are, however, some other factors that are contributing to this violence , such as;

• GBV is more prevelent in societies where more male superiority is treated as the norm.

• Low level of women empowerment

• Lack of social support

• Socio economic inequality

• Substance abuse

GBV can be sexual or even physical, and the perpetrator is either a strangers or an intimate partners. Although there is no accurate stats pertaing GBV, 1 in 3 women in South Africa will experience sexual attacks, 2 in five women will get beaten by their domestic partners. Between 30 and 40 persent of women have experienced sexual or physical intimate partner violence in their life time

Different types of GBV are;

• Violence against women and girls: This violence is strictly directed to women and girls.

• Violence agaisnt the LGBTI: The LGBTI community often find themselves subjected to violence. This is due to the fact that GBV is oftern experienced by people who are seen as not conforming to their assigned gender roles such as Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex people.

• Domestic violence: This is the form of violence that is carried out by a spouse or any other family member and it encompases violence against children as well.

• Sexual violence: This includes any firm of unwanted sexual act including sexual trafficking.

• Structual violence: This is when violence is build in to structure, appearing as unequal power relations.

Unfortunatley, GBV has dire consequences on both the survivor and the economy. GBV survivors are most likely to suffer from psychological trauma. This violence causes a heavy burden on the the health and criminal justice system. One other institution that suffers the consequence of GBV is the government. The government has to offer free psychological trauma counselling for GBV survivors who cannot afford conuselling sessions for themselves, this then increase government spending.

Eradicating GBV will require a multi layered strategy. For instance;

• A very strong re-edication program to talk openly about consent, rape and the history of South Africa, what happened, and how we need to overcome it

• Post trauma couselling must be available

• Challenge the justice system of this country. The justice system of this country is by far the worse; the prosecution rate in this country is really low and the reason for that is that, the police do not investigate these cases properly.