Creator
Lisa Vetten
Social development budget is not fit for purpose
The under-investment in cash transfers and caring services by the government suggests that many may well fall still further behind
Nurses could track domestic violence from stomach pains and headaches
The government had a plan to build domestic violence care into clinic services more than two decades ago but nothing ever came of it. Researcher Lisa Vetten argues it’s not too…
Local elections 2016 show that South Africa’s women continue to play second fiddle
Our past tells us that women mobilise in ways that produce significant political results. But the present shows how easily these gains can evaporate.
Donor slashes support funding for SA rape survivors
A US global fund has cut back on critical funding for services provided to survivors of violent crime. Government must provide a sustainable solution.
Losing the plot in Zuma rape trial’s stories
It wasn’t really about ‘impartial, objective’ judgment, but rather competing narratives.
The white right, women’s murders and a massacre of statistics
Flawed reasoning and distorted statistics characterise attempts by some on South Africa’s white right to prove black men are more violent than white.
Gender Bill fails to offer women anything new
The proposed equality legislation just duplicates functions from other laws, and offers nothing new, writes Lisa Vetten.
Rape in SA: Resolve, tenacity must prevail against the noise
Activism has to command the short attention spans of the outraged if it is to succeed, writes Lisa Vetten.
Catching rapists can also prevent other offences
It is an atypical argument for a gender activist to make – that the police must put more effort into investigating cases of stranger rape.
A prayer — or drugs — for the delusional
A gender activist slams the media’s contention that the Protection from Harassment Bill is part of a state conspiracy to clamp down on the media
The state of our nation
Lisa Vetten looks at the gulf between new progressive laws and their implementation.
Telling us what counts
"This year, when the statistics went up the increase was explained as proof of greater public confidence in the police, thus encouraging women to report the crime. These…
Witches, angels and the media
Journalists are the self-appointed custodians of the pot of public sympathy and they guard its apportionment jealously. To the good and virtuous they dole out rich, nourishing…
Mbeki and Smith both got it wrong
Statistics, in and of themselves make for boring conversation and dull reading. Yet they leap to volatile, political life when used to make arguments about race and violence, sex…