41

Key facts

� 51.3% of women in the Gauteng sample had experienced GBV at least once in their lifetime.� 75.5% of men had perpetrated GBV at least once in their lifetime.� 13.8% of women experienced, and 13.3% of men perpetrated, all four forms of GBV, namely

economic, emotional, physical and sexual violence.� The highest proportion of violence experienced by women, and perpetrated by men, is emotional

violence, 43.7% and 65.2% respectively.� This is followed by physical violence, experienced by 33.1% of women and perpetrated by 50.5%

of men.� 25.3% of the women experienced sexual violence in their lifetime while 37.4% of men perpetrated

sexual violence in their lifetime.� 22.3% of women experienced economic violence and 28.5% of men perpetrated such violence in

their lifetime.

Women and men from the One in Nine campaign protesting outside court during the Zuma rape trial. Photo: Judith Mtsewu

Extent of GBVCHAPTER 3

42

still get nightmares when I think about all thethings that he did to me. The worst thing he did tome was to tie my hands to the bumper of a car andmy feet to a tree, tear my clothes off and pour petrolover me, and tell me: “nobody will ever miss you. Iwill dump your body in a bush, or what is left you.”

I have decided to tell my story because I hope thatin doing so other women might avoid someof my mistakes, and in particular seek help.

I met Cyril Parkman in Rustenberg at the age of 32,while looking for a job. We were never married, but

he made use of a fraudulent certificate at that time.However, after three months of living together thedaily physical and verbal abuse started.

I lived with this situation because I believed thathe would change. Instead, the beatings becameeven more severe. He stabbed me in the stomach,in my throat and broke my finger when I tried toprevent him from stabbing me in the face. He evenshot at me and then forced me to tell the policethat I played with the gun.

He also denied me access to my children. He refusedto let me call them. When he found out one daythat I had used the phone to call my children, hestarted taking the phone to work.

He also prevented me from working. He wouldaccuse me of having affairs and would arrive atmy workplace and insult me.

On one occasion he told me to undress in front ofhis employees with the intention of raping me. Irefused. His employees left out of embarassment.He said that I am so useless that even blackpeople don't want me and he raped me.

� 13% of the women experienced, while14% of the men perpetrated, one or more acts of emotionalviolence in the 12 months preceding the study.

� 13.2% women experienced, and 5.8% men perpetrated, physical violence in the 12 months precedingthe study.

� 2.7% of women that ever worked had been sexually harassed in the workplace.� 1.4% of women had been sexually harassed by their school teachers.� 12 093 women reported domestic violence to police in the year 2009-2010.� The most commonly reported domestic violence-related offence is common assault.� Police statistics for the year shows that 0.3% of women in Gauteng reported domestic violence. This

shows a substantial proportion of underreporting of GBV.

IAnita Ferreira. Photo: Colleen Lowe Morna

I blamed myself and did not see that this was abuse.I thought that this was normal in marriage as ithappened in my parent's marriage. I only realisedthat it was abuse when I was sent to prison.

I also think I stayed in the relationship because Ifelt it was my duty, not for any religious reasons,but because I felt sorry for him. My partner waseither unable or too lazy to do anything for himself.

I attempted to commit suicide to end my miserablelife on many occasions. I drank poison and ran infront of trucks.

On the day of his death, he abused me violentlyand said that when he returned he was going tokill me. I was terrified. I realised that he was reallygoing to kill me that day and I thought to myselfthat I had to fight for my survival and that it waseither him or me. I was assisted by a lady whointroduced me to the man who killed my partner.

When I went to prison I was scared. However, I feltthat serving a prison term was better than livingwith him and the abuse. My experience in prisonwas not all negative. I made friends. I had mixedemotions when I left gaol. I had nowhere to stay. I

did not know where to go. At times I missed prisonwhere I had people to talk to.

But soon after my release I went to the NISAA shelterwhere I was welcomed with open arms. I had beento many shelters but this one was very clean and Ifelt that I was going home.

I have many strengths that have helped me tosurvive through my plight. I have strong faith inGod. I am a strong and resilient person and the factthat I can easily adapt to any situation made me asurvivor. My message to women who are in abusiverelationships is: Get out! Seek help!

Anita Ferreira participated in the first “I” Storiesin 2004 and wrote her story of physical,emotional, economic and sexual violence.Ferreira was convicted of murder after hiring twohit men to kill her partner following almost adecade of indescribable abuse aimed at breakingdown her body, her soul and her spirit.

Ferreira herself said it was an act of cowardice.The two hit men struck him while he lay passedout on the sofa. She helped them put his bodyin the boot of his car before watching them driveoff with it.

Ferreira received a life sentence. She appealed.Her legal team put before the court the factsabout post-traumatic stress. In a landmarkjudgment in April 2004 the court held thatFerreira's long history of severe abuseconstituted “substantial and compellingcircumstances” which permitted the Court toimpose a lesser sentence than life imprisonment.The court gave her a six year sentence with creditfor time served and suspended the rest.

43

South Africa justice system needs to respond more efficiently and effectively to GBV.Photo: Gender Links

44

The judgment recognises that women who havebeen abused and live in fear for their own livesfor a long time can conclude that the only wayout is to kill their abusive partners. Ferreirarecognises that killing your partner is not thesolution and before you reach that point youneed to get out and get help.

There are no reliable national data for theprevalence of intimate partner violence, but thebest population-based estimates, from 1998,identified a lifetime prevalence of physicalviolence of 25% and past-year prevalence of 10%in adult women in three provinces.

Studies undertaken with men, includingpopulation-based samples, and with subgroupsof women, suggest that this prevalence mightbe an underestimate. More than 40% of mendisclose having been physically violent to apartner and 40-50% of women have also

reported experiencing physical or sexualviolence.18

This chapter presents the rates of the differentforms of violence, including intimate and non-intimate partner violence. Where statistics werenot easily available, desktop research was usedto fill the gap. The prevalence and householdsurvey did not measure some forms of GBV suchas harmful cultural practice, hate crime, femicideand human trafficking.

Rate of GBV

Figure 3.1 illustrates that some 51.3% (263) of allwomen recruited in the study had experiencedsome form of GBV in their lifetime while 75.5%(370) of all men said they perpetrated some formof violence. About one in five (18.13%) womenexperienced and more than a quarter (29.0%) mensaid they perpetrated GBV in the past 12 months.

18 Jewkes et al 2009.

Ever abusedNever abused

Experience of any form of violence ina lifetime by women

48.7% 51.3%

Ever perpetratedNever perpetrated

Perpetration of any form of violence ina lifetime by men

75.5%

24.5%

Figure 3.1: Any experience of GBV by women or perpetration of GBV by men

45

Figure 3.2 presents the prevalence of differentforms of violence (emotional, physical, sexualand economic) experienced by women andperpetrated by men in the Gauteng sample. Thegraph shows that for all types more mendisclosed perpetration than women reportedexperience of victimisation. The most commonform of violence experienced by women andperpetrated by men was emotional violence,followed by physical, sexual and economic abuse.

Rate of emotional violence

In this survey, emotional abuse was assessed bysix questions which asked about experience (orperpetration) of a series of different acts thatwere controlling, frightening, intimidating orundermined women's self-esteem. Womenparticipants were asked if a male partner hadever insulted them or made them feel bad;belittled or humiliated them in front of otherpeople; threatened to hurt them; stopped themfrom seeing friends; done things to scare orintimidate them; or boasted about or broughthome girlfriends. Men were asked if they haddone any of these things to a female partner.Although the questionnaire asked about the

frequency of acts of emotional violence, theseare hard to assess as it is often ongoing within arelationship, taking multiple forms. This contextprovides a backdrop against which the (usually)more intermittent acts of physical and sexualviolence occur. Emotional violence was reportedby 43.7% women and perpetration disclosed by65.2% men.

Figure 3.3 shows the prevalence of different typesof emotionally abusive acts disclosed by womenand men. The most common form of emotionalabuse was men insulting women or making themfeel bad, with nearly half of all men (47.5%)disclosing having done this and such experiencesreported by a third of women (32.8%). A third ofwomen had been threatened with violence by apartner and a quarter said they had been scaredor intimidated. Attempts at social isolation in theform of stopping women from seeing friendswere disclosed by one in five women.

A further form of emotional violence involvesmen boasting about, or bringing home, girl-

Experience and perpetration of different forms of GBV in a lifetime

Figure 3.2: Forms of violence:experiences and perpetration

in a lifetime

PerpetrationExperience

80%70%60%50%40%30%20%10%

0% Rate ofpsychological

abuse

Rate ofphysicalviolence

Rate ofsexualabuse

Rate ofeconomic

abuse

65.2

43.750.5

33.1 37.4

25.3 28.522.3

Figure 3.3: Acts of emotionalabuse in a lifetime

Men’s perpetrationWomen’s experience

55%50%45%40%35%30%25%20%15%10%

5%0% Insulted

or made tofeel bad

Threatento hurt

Scared orintimidated

Belittled orhumiliated

in frontof others

Stop fromseeingfriends

Boastingabout or

bring homegirlfriends

33.930.0 30.1

26.624.6 25.2

20.0

24.9

47.5

32.8

8.8

15.2

46

friends. One in seven women (15.2%) said thatthey had experienced this and nearly one in tenmen (8.8%) disclosed having done this to awoman partner. In the past year, 13.0% of womensaid they had experienced one or more of theseforms of violence, and 14.0% of menadmitted to perpetrating such violence.

Rate of physical violence

Experience of physical intimate partner violencewas ascertained by asking five questions aboutwhether women had been slapped, hadsomething thrown at them, were pushed orshoved, kicked, hit,dragged, choked,beaten, burnt orthreatened with aweapon.

Physical violencewas the secondmost common formof violence reportedin the survey.

Overall 33.1% of women disclosed that this hadever happened and most of these women hadexperienced multiple forms of violence orviolence on multiple occasions (30.8%).Theprevalence reported here is higher than thatdisclosed in the MRC Three Province Study (25%),but the explanation may be largely due toimproved questionnaire design methodology.More than half of men (50.5%) disclosedperpetration and usually more than once (43.4%).

More than one ineight women (13.2%)had experiencedphysical IPV in thepast year, but fewermen disclosed recentperpetration (5.8%).Almost all womenwho disclosed havingever experiencedphysical violence(30.8% of all womeninter viewed) anda l m o s t a l l m e ndisclosing perpe-tration (43.4% of thetotal) had experi-enced or perpetratedm o r e t h a n o n eepisode of physicalviolence. Whilst therem a y h a v e b e e nunder-reporting of physical violence by thosewho had experienced or perpetrated it only once,the finding also suggests that physical violenceis often experienced on multiple occasions. Therate of physical violence perpetration on multiple

Women reclaiming their right to safety and security in Vosloorus in 2008.Photo: Adjoa Osei-Asibey

Nicole Alexandra Rice participated inGL's 2007 “I” Stories. In her story Findingmyself again Rice talks about theemotional and physical abuse sheexperienced from her partner: “Iremember the pain, the unendingpain, not physical pain caused by hisfists, but emotional pain. The hurt andanguish that I suffered because he wascapable of hurting me, and because Iwas imperfect, though I tried so hardto be perfect. I continuously blamedmyself; I believed it was me who hadto change. I believed I was the onewho was flawed.”

Thandeka (not her real name)wrote her story during the “I”Story follow-up workshop. Atage 16 she had been rapedtwice and was told that rapewas her family's legacy. This ispart of Thandeka's story: “I wasraped at 14. When I told mymother she told me to forgetabout it because she and mygrandmother had been raped.This is something that justhappens in the family.

I was date raped when I was 16and unfortunately got pregnant.This was only the second time Ihad sex. I didn't want a babybecause I was a baby. I neededtaking care of myself. I becamea parent at 16.

I never told anyone about therape. When my baby came intothe world she was very ill, shehad to be hospitalised in theintensive care unit. When I leftthe hospital that morning I wenthome and I didn't know how tofeel.”

19 Jewkes et al 2009.20 Violence and associated terms by Basil and Saltzman (2002).

47

Figure 3.4 shows the prevalence of rapedisclosed in the survey. Overall 25.3% of womenhad an experience of being raped by a man,whether a husband or boyfriend, familymember, stranger or acquaintance while aneven higher 37.4% of men admitted to everraping a woman. Overall, 18.8% of womenexperienced intimate partner rape on one ormore occasions, a figure nearly identical to theproportion of men disclosing perpetration.

In all, 12.2% of women disclosed that they hadbeen raped by a man who was not theirhusband or boyfriend while 31.0% of mendisclosed having raped a woman who was nota partner.

Additionally, 1.8% women had experienced anattempted rape, when a man had tried to forcethem but not succeeded, while 12.7% of menhad attempted to rape a non-partner. Researchfound that 4.2% of women had been rapedwhen drunk or drugged and 1.6% of womendisclosed gang rape; 14.2% of men had forced

occasions was higher than that disclosed by menin the Eastern Cape/KwaZulu-Natal study, where30.7% of men disclosed multiple acts of physicalviolence.19

Rate of sexual violence

Sexual violence20 in this research is non-consensual completed or attempted contactbetween the penis and the vulva or the penisand the anus involving penetration, howeverslight; non-consensual intentional touching,either directly or through the clothing, of thegenitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, orbuttocks. All the above acts qualify if they arecommitted against someone who is unable toconsent or refuse.

Partner rape experienced by women wasassessed by three questions inquiring if theircurrent or previous husband or boyfriend hadever physically forced them to have sex whenthey did not want to; whether they had had sexwith him because they were afraid of what hemight do and whether they had been forced todo something sexual that they found degradingor humiliating. Rape of women by men who werenot their partner was assessed by asking threequestions. The first asked about whether theyhad been forced or persuaded to have sex againsttheir will by a man who was not a husband orboyfriend, the second asked about whether theyhad been forced to have sex with a men whentoo drunk or drugged to stop him, and the thirdinquired about being forced or persuaded tohave sex with more than one man at the sametime. The latter is an indicator of gang rape.

Figure 3.4: Different types of rapeexperiences and perpetration

45%40%35%30%25%20%15%10%5%0% Rape Non-

partnerrape

Partnerrape

Rape underinfluence ofalcolhol or

drugs

31.0

12.2

18.2 18.8

14.2

4.2

12.7

1.8

37.4

25.3

6.9

1.6

Non-partner

attemptedrape

Gangrape

PerpetrationExperience

48

a woman to have sex when she was too drunkor drugged to refuse and 6.9% of men hadengaged in gang rape.

Experience of being raped by a stranger oracquaintance varied by age and race. Youngerwomen less than 29 years old were twice as likelyto disclose that they had been raped comparedto women aged 30-44 years. Sexual violenceoften provided the context of their firstexperience of sex, with 8.5% of womendescribing this as forced or as rape. In otherstudies, about 7.5% women reported a forcedfirst sexual intercourse at age 15 years orolder.21

There is no comparable data on experiences ofrape disclosed by women in South Africa, but a2008 survey of men in KwaZulu-Natal and theEastern Cape does present comparable data formen. In that study overall 28% of men disclosedhaving ever raped, 21% had raped a non-partner,14% a partner and 9% had been involved in agang rape.22 With the exception of gang rape,all these forms of rape were disclosed more oftenby men in Gauteng.

Rape in the past year

The prevalence of disclosure by women of rapein the past year was particularly high: at 7.8% itis nearly one in 12 women saying they had beenraped in the past year. The proportion of mendisclosing past year perpetration was lower at4.7%. This figure was identical to the proportionof men disclosing past year rape perpetration inthe Eastern Cape/KwaZulu-Natal survey.

Rate of reporting rape to the police

Only 3.9% of women who had been raped by apartner or non-partner had reported it to thepolice. Rape by an intimate partner was leastreported. Only 2.1% of women raped by anintimate partner reported this to the police. Ahigher proportion of women (7.8%) who hadbeen raped by a stranger or acquaintance hadreported the incident. Thus one in 13 of thewomen who had experienced non-partner rapehad ever reported this to the police and overallonly one in 25 women who had been raped hadreported it. About half of the survivors of violencewho did report to police had confided in familymembers. The other half chose not to confide ineither family or police. The majority of those thatreport to the police have also confided in family.

Rate of economic violence

Economic or financial abuse takes many forms,including controlling the finances, withholdingmoney or credit cards, giving a partner anallowance, making a partner account for allmoney spent, stealing or taking money frompartner, exploiting a partner's assets for personalgain, withholding basic necessities (food, clothes,medications, shelter), preventing a partner from

21 Dunkle et al., 2004, Pettifor et al., 2009.22 Jewkes et al 2009.

GL worked with Mo Afrika Tlhokomelo to gather stories fromex perpetrators of violence. Mo Afrika was established by sixSouth African ex-convicts. Mo Afrika works with ex-convictsto help them reintegrate into society. In one of the storiesZakes (not his real name) described how he lived prior to beingimprisoned, “My friends and I would sometimes go to tavernsand we would jack-rol (rape) women and assault theirboyfriends. The community hated us. Some members of thecommunity would go to the police station to report us, butthe case would not go to trial due to dockets “being lost”.

49

working or choosing a career, or sabotaging apartner's job by making them miss work.23

Overall 22.3% of women in the sampleexperienced economic abuse and 28.5% of mendisclosed perpetration. Nearly half of the women(9.3%) who said this had ever occurred hadexperienced economic violence in the past yearcompared to 5% men who said they hadperpetrated such acts.

Figure 3.5 illustrates that the most common actof economic violence reported by women, andcorroborated by men, was not being givenmoney necessary to run the home when thismoney was available.

Nearly one in ten women were evicted from ahome, a similar proportion to that reported bywomen in Mpumalanga in the MRC ThreeProvince study in 1998 (9.2%).24 Previous researchhas shown that evictions occurred followingattempts by women to complain about extra-marital affairs or other forms of abusive behaviour

such as spending money on girlfriends insteadof family.

An even higher proportion of men (9.5%) saidthat they routinely take women's earnings.

Taking earnings was also reported through “I”Stories. In the case of Gladys Dlamini, herhusband took her earnings and still refused tocontribute to home essentials.

Many men believe it is their right to take their partners’ wages.Photo: Gender Links

23 http://www.4woman.gov/violence/types/emotional-cfm.24 Jewkes et al 2009.

Figure 3.5: Economic violenceexperienced by women and

perpetrated by men18%16%14%12%10%

8%6%4%2%0% Not given money

for home essentialswhen had it

Forbiddento workto earn

Forcibly evictedwomen or children

from home

Take herearnings

Women’s experienceMen’s perpetration

16.515.3

10.3

5.5

9.2

5.87.3

9.5

Gladys Dlamini (not her real name) wrote in her2007 “I” Story titled Taking a stand about theemotional, physical and economic abuse shehad experienced. This is an extract from her story:“When I married I had been working for fouryears. I had to give him my salary even thoughhe was working too. He earned a lower salarythan me. I complained about giving him mysalary because both of us were earning. He saidthat he had paid lobola for me and everything Ihave is his and what he has is mine. In reality itwas not like that because he took everythingand did not share his salary with me.”

50

Multiple forms of Intimate Partner Violence

The term “Intimate PartnerViolence” describes physical,sexual, or psychological harm bya current or former partner or

spouse. This type of violence canoccur among heterosexual or same-

sex couples and does not require sexual intimacy.

Almost all the men and women interviewed(more than 95%) had been in a heterosexual

relationship. In all, 75% of women and 84% ofmen said they were currently married or had aheterosexual partner; one percent disclosedhaving a partner of the same sex. Only 63% ofwomen and 58% of men were in cohabitingrelationships. Having more than one currentpartner was disclosed by 10% of women and25% of men, and many women (28%) and men(25%) suspected or knew their partner had otherpartners.

Ever abusedSexual onlyPhysical onlyEmotional onlyEconomic onlyEmotional and economicPhysical and sexualEmotional, economic and sexualEmotional, economic and physicalEmotional, economic, physical and sexual

Table 3.1 Intimate partner violence experience and perpetration in a lifetime

Women - Experience%

51.22.32.36.50.65.30.62.5

17.513.8

Men - Perpetration%

78.31.96.3

10.51.06.10.72.4

36.113.3

Table 3.1 illustrates that 51.2% of partneredwomen had experienced some form of violencewithin an intimate partnership while 78.3% ofpartnered men disclosed perpetrating violenceagainst a female partner. The proportions ofwomen who experienced emotional, economic,physical and sexual violence and men who hadperpetrated multiple forms of IPV are very similarat 13.8% and 13.3% respectively. The womenreferred to physical abuse occurring amidstepisodes of verbal abuse from the partner. In a

few cases, physical or emotional abuse occurredas a reaction to a partner's pregnancy announce-ment.

Analysis of “I” Stories shows that many womenwho have been abused by their partners do nothave the economic power to walk away from theserelationships. Many women make excuses forabusive partners and many feel they are to blamefor the abuse. Such acceptance of abuse and itsnormalisation makes it difficult to walk away.

51

sex with him. In the Gauteng sample of women,2% had been told they would have to have sexwith a man in order to get a job.

Rate of sexual harassment by teachers

School-related GBV can be broadly clustered intotwo overlapping categories: explicit gender(sexual) violence, which includes sexualharassment, intimidation, abuse, assault and rape,and implicit gender violence, which includescorporal punishment, bullying, verbal andemotional abuse, a teacher's unofficial use ofstudents for free labour and other forms ofaggressive or unauthorised behaviour that isviolent.26

Sexual harassment by teachers was not verycommonly reported, 1.4% of women in thesample said they had experienced GBV from ateacher. A similar proportion of women (1.0%)disclosed that a teacher/principal/lecturer everhinted or threatened that they could fail exams,get bad marks, or that their schooling would bedamaged if they did not have sex with him. Alow proportion of women (1.2%) had beensexually touched by a teacher.

Rate of domestic violence reported to SAPS

A comparison of self-reporting of violence by theparticipants in the survey with results from ananalysis of a South African Police Service (SAPS)dataset of all crimes committed against adults inGauteng that were coded as “domestic violence”indicates a high degree of under-reporting.

Overall 2.7% of women who had ever workeddisclosed that a man had hinted or threatenedthat they would lose their job if they didn't have

25 Quote by Judge Hennie Nel in Sexual Harassment by Charlene Smith.26 (Akiba et al., 2002) conducted a study on school violence in 37 nations, based on TIMSS data. This report viewed school violence largely in terms of delinquency,

youth crime and classroom disruption. Although figures on rape are provided, there was no attempt to distinguish sexual violence from other forms of schoolviolence.

“[A] pervasively hostile work environment ofsexual harassment is never (one would hope)authorised, the supervisor is clearly charged withmaintaining a productive, safe work environ-ment. The supervisor directs and controls theconduct of the employees, and the manner ofdoing so may inure to the employer's benefit ordetriment... It is by now well recognised thathostile environment sexual harassment bysupervisors (and, for that matter, co-employees)is a persistent problem in the workplace.”25

Sexual harassment

52

The data from the South African Police Service(SAPS) for the period April 2008 to March 2009(Table 3.2) shows that more women than menreported being survivors of domestic violencewhile more men than women were recorded asperpetrators.

Using the STATSA mid-year population estimatefor Gauteng for 2009 and the reported cases ofdomestic violence, an estimated 0.09% of menand 0.3% of women reported a case of domestic

violence over the time period. These statisticsfor the victimisation of women are much lowerthan the one in five (18.13%) women who saidthey had experienced violence in the past yearin the survey.

A comparison of the survey results and SAPSdata results shows a substantial discrepancy.This is indicative of the high rates of under-reporting of domestic violence.

Table 3.2: Prevalence of domestic violence as reported to SAPS 2008/2009

Sex

MaleFemaleTotal

Frequency

3 20712 09315 307

Percentage

20.9679.04100

Census population*

3 451 0693 515 397

Prevalence

0.09%0.3%

Offence

Contravention of a protection orderCommon assaultAssault grievous bodily harmMurderCrimen injuriaAttempted murderRapeSexual assaultSexual offenceRape of wife by own husbandAttempted rapeAbductionAny crime of indecent natureIndecent assaultCompelled self-sexual assaultAttempted rape of wife by own husbandCompelled rape

Table 3.3: Type of offence survivors reported to the police

Percentage

3.4863.1928.62

0.90.420.9

1.980.160.070.080.050.060.020.040.010.010.03

Frequency

5339667437813864

1373032411127936115

Physical violence reported as common assaultwas the most reported form of GBV (Table 3.3).Nearly two thirds (63.19%) of cases opened were

for common assault. Over a quarter of cases(28.62%) were for assault with the intent to dogrievous bodily harm.

53

categorised into the non-applicable, unknownand other weapon groups.

There were, however, some potentially importantlimitations of the SAPS dataset that should benoted. It is unclear what the circumstances were

which led data capturers to use the“domestic violence” variable and thismay have varied from station to station.No data on the relationship betweenthe perpetrator and the survivor isavailable. This means that crimesoccurring in a domestic setting such asan adult male child abusing an elderlymale parent could have been capturedas “domestic violence”. This affects thevalidity of the results and as suchshould be interpreted with somecaution.

Hate crimes against lesbians

On 1 December 2006 South Africa made historyby becoming the fifth country in the world, andthe first in Africa to legalise same-sex marriage.

There is an apparent racial bias in the crimecategories registered in police statistics. Whitewomen and men were more likely to be survivorsof common assault than other race groups (Table3.4). Black/African women and men were morelikely to report assault with the intent to dogrievous bodily harm.

Hands and fists were themost commonly usedweapons during episodesof violence reported tothe police, with 60.46% ofcases reporting this as theprimary instrument. Bluntobjects were commonlyused (10.96%) and theseincluded bats, batons andsticks. Sharp objects suchas knives or screwdriverswere used as the primary weapon in 6.38% ofcases reported to the police. Firearms were usedin 1.21% of cases. Verbal abuse was reported asthe primary instrument in about 1% of cases. Aconsiderable amount (3.29%) of entries was

Offence

Contravention of a protection orderCommon assault*Assault with intent to do grievousbody harm*MurderCrimen injuriaAttempted murderRapeSexual assaultSexual offenceOtherTotal

Table 3.4: Survivors by race and offence reported

%

3.563.2

28.60.90.40.92.10.20.10.2

100

Total

5339 667

4 37813864

138315241131

15 299

%

5.567.8

19.23.31.71.70.60

0.60

100

Indian

10123

356331010

182

%

4.774.8

14.81.10.92.90.400

0.4100

White

54852

1681210335005

1 139

%

7.762

25.60.41.30.62

0.10.10.2

100

Coloured

66530

2193

115

17112

855

%

3.162.2

30.10.90.3

0.742.20.20.10.2

100

Black

4038 162

3 9561174097

292239

2413 123

Mmabatho Moyo shared her “I” Story in 2007.The title of her story is Walking away withnothing. These are her words:

“In 2001, he came home just after midnight andwoke me up demanding a cup of tea. I declinedand he became aggressive. He threatened toshoot me to death. I woke up went to thekitchen in tears, plugged the kettle to make tea.Reaching for the cup in the cupboard, for somereason I decided to turn and as I did so, hereleased the trigger and shot me. Fortunately,the bullet did not go straight into my head butbecame lodged close to my scalp. I fellunconscious and woke up in hospital fourmonths later. I was in hospital for 13 monthsbecause I could not speak or walk.”

27 Is it a crime to be a woman who loves other women? by Lindiwe Radebe.

54

Although South Africa has some of the mostprogressive legislation around gay rights, manypeople, and even those in top governmentpositions, do not publicly denounce hate crimesagainst homosexual people.

Argued from a cultural, religious or moralperspective, the ill-treatment of lesbian and gaypeople is prevalent in South Africa. Attacks onlesbians because of their sexual orientationand/or gender identity are a unique form of GBV.Hate crimes occur at the extreme end of acontinuum that includes hate speech. Hatespeech is dehumanising and is in itself a form ofattack. Anecdotal evidence points to theprevalence of “corrective rape”, the rape oflesbians to “cure” them by making themstraight.

Kebarileng Sebetoane told her story of beingraped by a man she thought was her friend.

“I got a bit tense when he started giving me the'you make me sick look'. He locked the door. Iwas really confused he was swearing at me and

saying how much he hates people who pretend.I then asked him what he was talking about. Hewas furious with the lesbian life I was living. Hesaid that I should stop taking other people'sgirlfriends and that I was beautiful and capableof getting myself a boyfriend. I got angry andstarted arguing back. He slapped me on the face,and warned me not to shout at him or will regretit. He said: “Tonight I'm going to change you, andas from now on you are my girlfriend.”

Similarly, Lindiwe Radebe was attacked with agroup of friends by several men:

“They surrounded me and started kicking meand continued calling me names. I rememberone of them said 'You think you're a man wenastand up and fight!' I could not do anything. Thiswent on for a couple of minutes. It was terrible.I only managed to stand up through God's mercy.But one of them continued slapping me andhitting me with fists while the other oneattempted to throw a stone at my face.Fortunately, I managed to block the stone fromhitting my face with my left hand but my thumbwas hurt and was seriously bleeding.”27

Photo: Nomtandazo Mankazana

Lindiwe Radebe. Photo: Colleen Lowe Morna

55

if he wanted to help me or not. He told me thatI had an attitude problem and that is when Iasked to see the station commander.”

Cases of hate crime, or crimes perpetrated againstminorities as a direct result of their membershipin that minority group have been welldocumented. Hate crime against homosexuals,including corrective rape; the rape of a lesbianwoman in an attempt to either “correct” hersexual orientation, or punish her for being gay,is not a new phenomenon and has been on theincrease in recent years. Politicians did notpublicly condemn the murder of prominentlesbian Eudy Simelane.

Radebe recalls the re-victimisation by policeofficers who attended to her at the police stationwhere she went to report the incident. Uponlearning about her sexual orientation, the officer'sattitude abruptly changed.

“I vividly remember him changing his facialexpression. He looked at me and exclaimed'What?' I repeated what I had said before - 'I amlesbian'. He stared at me again. My friend gotirritated and answered on my behalf. Shereiterated 'She said we are lesbian'. Then the realemotional trauma began. He started giving alecture about how wrong and unholy it is to bea lesbian. I became really angry and asked him

other two were acquitted due to insufficientevidence.

Despite the media coverage, very few statementsmade by political functionaries condemning thecrime were reported by the media.

The reason for the silence of politicians isunknown; however, in focus groups conductedto explore public perception, the suggestion wasthat the silence may have been the intentionalavoidance of a social and cultural hot topic. Onefocus group participant stated “I think they shouldhave said something, because they are influential,and they know people listen, maybe throughthat they could have educated people.” Othersfelt the silence was favourable to functionariesmaking controversial statements like PresidentJacob Zuma had about homosexuals: “when I

Despite the fact that hate crimes are proving tobe real and pervasive issues worthy of concernin South Africa, politicians still do not speak outopenly about them.

In April 2008, Eudy Simelane, a 31-year-old ex-professional football player for Banyana Banyanaand vocal activist for the gay and lesbian rights,was stabbed multiple times, gang raped and leftfor dead in a ditch. Although the motive of herattackers remains contested, Simelane's work asan activist against hate crime, and her opennessabout her sexual orientation as a lesbian woman,led fellow activists, members of the public andthe media to believe that the attack may havebeen motivated by homophobia.

Four men were put on trial for Simelane's murder;two were convicted and sentenced while the

Politicians choose to be silent about sexuality and homophobiaCaseStudy�

GBV is not a priority in the prevailing politicaldiscourse

56

An analysis of 1956 available official speechesby politicians shows that political leaders andother government functionaries do not speakenough and with sufficient depth about GBV inofficial speeches.

Figure 3.6 shows that in an analysis of a selection1956 official speeches made by key politicalfunctionaries between April 2009 and March2010, only 4.8% mentioned or were about GBV.Of these, 83.8% made a passing reference to GBVwhile only 16.2% addressed the issue of GBVdirectly. An example of these passing remarks isin a speech by President Zuma celebrating the35th anniversary of Mitchells Plain. The reference

was: “The poverty, unemployment, domesticviolence, abuse as well as crime must be attendedto with much vigour by all spheres of govern-ment.”

keep quiet”. Findings from focus groupdiscussions with men and women show that asan audience they were disappointed at the failureof political functionaries to use this unfortunateincident to educate people and raise awarenessabout hate crimes.

was growing up, unqungili (homosexuals) couldnot stand in front of me. I would knock him out."(Mail & Guardian, 5 March 2010).

One participant said: “if you cannot be sincere inwhat you say about these things then you should

GBVNon-GBV

Figure 3.6: GBV mentions in political speeches

95.2%

4.8%

Figure 3.7: Percentage of GBV speeches by occasion30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

26.4

21.8

12.610.3 10.3

3.5 3.5 2.31.1 1.1 1.1

5.8

Related tocomme-moration

Civil societyevents/

conferences

Depart-mental

budget vote

Governmentcampaigns

Parliamentarydebate

Politicalrally

Politicallegislature

Opening ofparliament

OfficialFuneral

Presentationof a bill

Ministerialcluster

meeting

Other

57

16 Days of No Violence against Women andChildren campaign. During this time, mediapick-up on GBV stories is very high. Politiciansinclude GBV in their speeches in addition towearing the white ribbon to demonstrate theirsupport to ending GBV.

Figure 3.7 shows that the majority of speeches(26.4%) addressing GBV in any form are madeduring specific commemorative days. Atthese times GBV is referred to as a women'sissue, not a human rights issue. The only othertime that GBV is dominant is during the annual

Figure 3.8: Percentage of GBV topics covered in speeches20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

14.7

5.5 5.0

2.9 2.5 2.1 1.7 1.7 1.3 1.3 0.4

18.5

14.7

11.39.7

6.7

Childabuse

Rape Domesticviolence

Sexualoffences/Indecentassault

Genderviolence

andHIV

Physicalviolence

Supportfor

thoseaffected

Sexualharass-ment

Legislative/political

responses

Femi-cide

Mainte-nance/

economicviolence

Psycho-logical

violence

Advocacyand

protest

Emo-tionalabuse

Samesex

partnerviolence

Other

Non-physical violence and emotional abusew e r e h a r d l y m e n t i o n e d b y p o l i t i c a lfunctionaries: Emotional abuse was addressedin just 1.3% of speeches and psychologicalviolence in 1.7% of speeches. Combined non-physical violence/ abuse made up only 7.6%(combining emotional abuse, psychologicalviolence, maintenance/ economic violence andsexual harassment).

Only 1.3% of the speeches made reference toadvocacy and protest. The 365 Days NationalAction Plan (NAP) to End GBV in South Africa isan integrated, overarching strategy to addressall forms of GBV. The South Africa NAP has notbeen effectively implemented since its launchin March 2007 and it appears to have fallen offthe political agenda.

Political functionaries do not engage with same-sex violence, only 0.4% of speeches mentionthe topic.

The top four topics most mentioned in speecheswere rape and child sexual abuse (both 14.7%);domestic violence (11.3%) and sexualoffences/indecent assault (9.7%). Genderviolence and HIV (6.7%), physical violence (5.5%)and support (5%) for those affected werementioned much less.

Politicians hardly made mention of sexualharassment (2.9%) which is an urgent problemin schools, institutions of higher learning andthe work place. Legislative/political responses,which should be high on the agenda of politicalfunctionaries, were mentioned in 2.5% ofspeeches.

Femicide is a form of GBV that is on the rise,with men killing their partners as a result ofdomestic violence. It is not yet well understoodas a form of GBV and does not featureprominently in prevention campaigns. Politicalleaders need to speak more about it and placeit within the public discourse around GBV.

58

Figure 3.9 shows that politicians are not intouch with the forms of violence women areexperiencing. More women are experiencingemotional violence than any other form ofviolence. Men are perpetrating very high levels(65.2%) of emotional violence against womenyet politicians are only speaking about it in 1.3%,or 25 out of 1956 speeches. The trend is similarfor economic violence.

More women are experiencing, and more menperpetrating, physical violence 33.1% and 50%respectively, than sexual and economic violence.Political speakers mention the subject in just5.5% of their speeches.

Even though sexual violence is mentioned in14.7% of the speeches made by politicalfunctionaries, it is low relative to women's

experience (25.3%) and men's perpetration(37.4%).

Conclusion

The levels of GBV experienced by women andperpetrated by men in the Gauteng sample, bothin their lifetimes and in the last year, are alarming.In all instances the levels of perpetration by menin the Gauteng sample are higher than the levelsof GBV experienced by women.

Emotional violence constitutes the highestproportion of violence experienced by womenat 43.7%, and perpetrated by men (75.5%) in theGauteng sample. Police statistics for the yearshows that 0.3% of women in Gauteng reporteddomestic violence. This shows a substantialproportion of underreporting of GBV.

The prevalence figures emerging from theGauteng GBV Indicators study is showing adisjuncture between what politicians perceiveto be the key GBV priorities and what is actuallyhappening on the ground.

Overall it is clear that political functionaries donot engage with GBV in their speeches andtherefore are not putting GBV on the publicagenda.

Figure 3.9: Prevalence ofdifferent forms of GBV withthe number of mentions in

speeches70%60%50%40%30%20%10%0% Emotional Physical Sexual Economic

15.316.5

1.7

43.7

1.3

33.1

50.0

5.5

25.3

37.4

14.7

ExperiencePerpetrationMentions in speeches

65.2