We celebrate National Women’s Day, as we rightly should, every year. But how do we deal with the fact that every day the bodies, minds and dignity of thousands of women are violated at the hands of their partners, in their own homes?
Domestic violence has risen dramatically in post-apartheid South Africa, and by all accounts we are one of the most violent societies in the world, especially in the vitally important but “private” domestic sphere.
There can be no doubt that our deeply violent and racist history played a big part in producing such widespread abuse. The extreme exploitation and racism black working-class men were subjected to at the workplace and in broader society during the apartheid years fuelled much of the violence they subjected their families to at home. Men have tended to take out their frustrations on their loved ones, striking out at those closest to them when they cannot cope with stress, adversity and humiliation. The perpetrators of such abuse have included supposedly progressive men.
So deep and pervasive is this violence that it continues unabated, despite all the legislative and official opposition to it.
But we cannot simply attribute all violence against women to the effects of racism and even capitalism, which is arguably itself a violent, aggressive, abusive and male-dominated system. Cultural factors, cutting across race and class — including some ingrained sexist and warped religious beliefs about the place and role of women — have created a foundational and socialising legitimacy that continues to be resistant to the emancipation of women. And no doubt the worsening poverty of many black working-class families, combined with the ascendancy of many women as breadwinners and leaders, has changed traditional domestic power relations, creating more frustration for those men who feel disempowered.
However, it is the invisibility of domestic violence, most of which goes unreported, that should be our greatest concern. The evident fear of abused women and children to report violence against them to the police has created a vicious cycle of perpetuation. Many homes are daily the sites of beatings, fear, terror and humiliation.
Domestic violence affects not only poor black women. It is, in fact, their children — in whom society’s future ought to reside — who are the biggest victims of domestic violence. The consequences of this in the areas of education, development and social transformation will be incalculable if this vicious social scourge continues unchallenged.
All relevant institutions and organisations in our country, and crucially all forms of media, need to take the invisible but no less horrific violence against women and children far more seriously. We owe it to the memory of black working-class women’s pivotal role in sustaining families during the long apartheid nightmare, and their valiant contributions to the liberation struggle.
A concerted campaign is urgently required to expose and combat one of South Africa’s greatest but largely silent social evils — and give voice to women and children who, inside the suffering silence of their hearts, daily cry our for attention and justice.
Central to such a campaign is the need to inform women about their rights, and to encourage them to exercise these rights in their own interests and those of their children. Otherwise the many progressive laws intended to protect women and children since 1994 will be seriously undermined.
Ebrahim Harvey is a political commentator and Ford Foundation fellow at Wits University