Press Release: Soul City Institute calls on President Ramaphosa to address the elephant in the living room

The Soul City Institute for Social Justice acknowledges and recognises President Cyril Ramaphosa’s remarks launching the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children in Lephalale on 25 November 2020.

As an intersectional feminist social justice institute, working with women and girls, the SCI welcomes President Ramaphosa’s remarks and renewed commitment to ending the low-grade civil war being waged on women, girls, and gender-non-comforming people.
However, the SCI is extremely concerned by government’s failure to establish the legislative framework required to empower the Nation’s Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (NSPGBVF).

President Ramaphosa’s leadership in committing to the National Strategic Plan, showed promise in that it indicated a clear change in the ‘tone at the top’ regarding GBV and femicide. The plan mandates the Department of Justice to set up the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (NCGBVF) as well as the legislative framework to implement it.

However, to date, there has been no information in the public domain on how the legislative framework to implement the NSPGBVF will be developed, and when this work will begin.

Government’s failure to establish this legislative framework is a breach of promise to women and girls that justice will not only be done, but that it will be seen to be done. It is a deviation from the NSP.

Without legislation, we have no mechanism to hold government accountable.

Without legislation to we have no mechanism to address the issues that we – the women and girls at the coalface of this low-grade war – know bedevil the system and prevent us from accessing justice.

Without legislation – we are unable to address the fragmented responses to GBVF, are unable to clarify funding mechanisms, and have no recourse should the State fail to fulfill its mandate.

Noting, both the local and global significance of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children campaign starting today, the SCI would like to take this opportunity to remind President Ramaphosa of the roots of this global campaign.

And of the significance of the campaign for the attainment of women's human rights in SA.

Today, 25th November – marks the day in 1960, when three sisters and political activists - Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa Mirabal – were murdered for their political resistance to the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.

The Mirabal sisters would become symbols of feminist resistance in Latin America where the 25th November was first declared International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in Latin America in 1980. In 1991, the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University called for a global campaign of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.

Today, the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign spans almost 200 countries around the world and is one of the longest-running global campaigns against one of the most pernicious and ubiquitous violations of human rights: violence against women.

Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa Mirabal were clubbed to death and dumped at the bottom of a cliff by the Dominican Republic’s secret police.

It was an extra-judicial execution committed by men who behaved with impunity and believed they would never be held accountable.

A situation not much different from South Africa today, where women, children and gender non-conforming people are raped, murdered, mutilated and dumped, by perpetrators who behave with impunity.

The SCI calls on President Ramaphosa to urgently establish the legislative framework required to empower the Nation’s Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.

Violence against women is a violation of the Constitution and a violation of the rights to equality, dignity, and freedom guaranteed by the Constitution. The attainment of women’s human rights and the end to GBV and femicide should be rooted in law and accountability.

The culture of wide-spread impunity requires proper and swift response mechanisms, informed by accountable structures and rooted in law.

While SCI welcomes the President’s remarks launching the beginning of these critical 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children, we call on the President to address the elephant in the living room, which will continue to stymie women’s access to justice and the fight against gender-based violence and femicide.