On Tuesday, Feb. 19, famous South African paralympian Oscar Pistorius was charged with premeditated murder, with prosecutors arguing the athlete had “put on his prosthetic legs, walked seven metres and fired four shots through a locked bathroom door,” killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day.

The sprinter, who made history by participating against able-bodied athletes in the London 2012 Olympic, denied the charge during his bail application, saying that he had mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder.

Pistorius’ bail application – due to resume this Wednesday, Feb. 20 – has attracted massive public attention, as many have questioned if the case will be the ignition of a powder keg that has been waiting to go off in South Africa, where violence against women has reached record proportions.

Only two weeks ago, the country was left in shock when 17-year-old Anene Booysen was brutally gang raped, mutilated and disembowelled, dying of her injuries soon thereafter.

The two men charged in the crime are due to face their bail hearing on Feb. 26^th.

The two cases have resulted in heated debate and public protests, with rights activists and politicians both calling for action against gender violence in a country numbed by its exposure to violent crimes.

According to one-year statistics from the South African Police Services released in 2011, seven women were murdered each day. Meanwhile, crime trackers estimate that one woman gets raped every 17 seconds, bestowing upon South Africa the dubious title of the world’s rape capital, according to Interpol. Yet, less than one percent of rape cases are reported to police.

“Hundreds of thousands” in search of justice 

Amanda Gouws, a political science professor at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and a commissioner for the South African Commission for Gender Equality, said that despite the public and media outcry around the two high-profile cases, she was not hopeful that justice would be meted out for Booysen.

“I have seen too many cases that start out with a big bang, but many of them don’t reach a good conclusion because witnesses were not all interviewed and evidence was contaminated or they fail because of technicalities etc.,” Gouws said.

“But it may be that this case was high profile and so horrific, that it will. But there are hundreds and thousands of other cases that are not.”

Pistorius’ arrest occurred on the same day as President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation address – a speech that many had hoped would provide direction to a country beleaguered by service delivery protests, an economic downturn and violent crime.

In Gouw’s view, however, Zuma, failed to adequately addressed the issue, adding that, “Justice is supposed to be blind – but not the case in gender violence.”

“If you look at what he said about violent protests in South Africa – that we need an intervention on a national, provincial and local government level, that we need a prioritisation of the role of the court – he did not say that about gender violence.

“In light of 5,000 protests a year and 64,000 rapes in 2012 alone, the address left her “very disappointed,” she said.

Research published this year by South Africa’s Medical Research Council revealed that more than a quarter of the test group of 1,738 men from all races and economic backgrounds had admitted raping at least once.

Need for better leadership

However, violence against women in South Africa is not confined to rape or murder. The police include non-sexual physical abuse, emotional and economic abuse, as well as stalking in its definition of “domestic violence.”

Only last week, South African media reported that Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale’s wife, Judy Sexwale, had accused him of all three in an affidavit filed as part of their divorce proceedings.

It was not the first time that a high profile South African politician had been accused of violence against women, with Zuma himself making international headlines in 2006. Zuma, then deputy leader of the ruling party, was eventually acquitted of rape.

Lubna Nadvi, chairperson of the Advice Desk for the Abused in Durban (an NGO that provides crisis intervention to the victims and perpetrators of violence) and a lecturer in political science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, told IPS that the country’s leadership still needed to take a clear stance on gender violence.

“I think the president needs to clearly state that women and girls are not freely available as sexual objects to men, to be used and abused, nor does African or any other culture give men the right to abuse women.

“Hopefully such stronger declarations from him will force men to think about how they act and behave in the future, whether he remains president for another term or not.”

With violence against women on the rise in South Africa, the Booysens, Pistorius and Sexwale cases had shone a much-needed media spotlight on the issue, she said.

“What it means is that the media is covering these stories more frequently and with greater depth.”

Breaking social numbness 

She said that the South African judiciary and public had to take into account the extremely violent context within which these crimes were committed and reflect on what the country needed to do collectively to change the prevailing environment, mindsets, thoughts and actions.

“If the nation as a whole doesn’t take action soon, we are at risk of becoming known as a place where no woman or girl is safe anywhere, especially near her intimate partner. This should not in the least be anything we should be aspiring towards,” said Nadvi.

Gauteng-based sociologist Shafinaaz Hassim, who recently authored a novel about domestic violence in the Muslim community, agreed.

“That these incidents have been highlighted drags civil society out of its apolitical numbness and crass denialism and demands that we get involved in supporting women in every way that we can – as individuals, communities, and organisations.”

But changing the tide is not just about providing support for victims and retribution for perpetrators – but is also about re-educating children and eliminating gender stereotypes, said Hassim.

“By putting the negatives in the spotlight, we’re able to define a new way forward, we’re able to heal and transform our society so that we don’t wear this banner of shame and horror,” she added.

*Additional reporting by Nalisha Adams in Johannesburg

By Fatima Asmal
DURBAN, Feb 10 2011 (IPS)

Zanele Magwaza-Msibi is a woman with a mission: to serve the people of South Africa. She is poised to become leader of South Africa’s newest political party, the National Freedom Party (NFP), after breaking away from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), where she served as national chairperson.

In this new role she comes into the growing tradition of female political party founders and leaders in South Africa, first achieved by Helen Suzman, one of the founders of the apartheid-era Progressive Party and one of the few white voices challenging racial discrimination at the time; Helen Zille, the current leader of the Democratic Alliance; and Patricia De Lille, founder and president of the Independent Democrats.

Fatima Asmal spoke to Magwaza-Msibi about her reasons for leaving the IFP and her aims and aspirations for her new party.

Q: What were the challenges you experienced as the female national chair of the IFP? A: It is a fact that there are some people within the IFP who don’t believe that a woman can be a leader. It was ironic because I was the national chairperson of the IFP, the second to the president. Therefore, I was occupying the very highest position in the IFP and I was getting a lot of support from the president and other members.

But there are some within the party who don’t believe that a woman can take a leadership position and be at the helm of the party.

Q: Why did you break away from the party? A: I did not want to do that. It took me about two and a half years to take a decision. In fact, it was not my decision but I felt I could no longer continue because I took it as a constructive dismissal from my party.

I don’t want to talk about what has been going on inside the IFP because I don’t want people to have a bad picture of the party as if I’m saying it because I’m disgruntled, because I’m not disgruntled.

I loved the IFP very much and the leadership of the IFP. It was a very difficult decision to take but, ultimately, I felt that there was nothing else that I could do because I tried to mend things between us but I failed.

Q: And your motivation for forming the NFP? A: It was not me, it was the support — the ground support that I have and the aspirations that people had for me. I couldn’t just slaughter those aspirations, I couldn’t just try and break away from them because I have worked so hard since I was young for the communities and people know me very well. It was them having seen that I’ve gone through a lot in the party. They felt that they knew that ultimately the party was going to expend me or dismiss me and they came together and started something.

Q: What do you hope to achieve with the NFP? A: My main objective is to serve the people of South Africa and to serve them better than anyone else. You can’t serve people unless you are in a political party and unless you are in government.

I have a track record, fortunately for me. I’ve been the mayor of Zululand for thirteen years. In the period I’ve been the mayor I’ve been chosen as the number one district in terms of service delivery. I’ve never had toyi-toyiing in my area of jurisdiction, even from within the municipality.

I believe very strongly that if you work, you have to work with the people, you have to inform them. I believe very strongly in clean governance, in service delivery, I believe very strongly that we have to fight corruption, I believe very strongly that the issues which affect more especially the voiceless – women and young people – those issues should have prominence in whatever I do, and also the elderly people.

In Zululand I’ve been working with all those people. I was the only municipality that was able to go out and get funding from overseas. I’ve built more than 450 classrooms in my tenure as mayor, [despite] that not being my responsibility and obligation as mayor.

My conviction is that in South Africa, we need a very strong opposition, an opposition that’s going to help the ruling party, to keep it on its toes – because if there is no strong opposition, the ruling party gets too much power and too much power corrupts and corrupts absolutely.

That is why there’s a lot of corruption, that is why there’s a lot of nepotism, that is why there’s a high level of unemployment and corruption that is going on in all levels of government, because the ANC has become too big.

I don’t want to see our country sliding into a one party state. Therefore I believe very strongly that we have to get an opportunity to serve the people and to serve them better than everyone else.

Q: How has the party been received thus far? A: I’m very much humbled by the reception that I’m receiving from all the communities where I go. I received a call from a very passionate woman from Limpopo who was saying she learnt about me having started the party and they have spoken to a lot of people. She said she has already informally registered about 900 people to join our party.

We only introduced the party recently at the Durban City Hall but I was amazed at the number of people who attended – the newspapers were saying there were more than 5,000 people there – I was humbled.

That same day I went to Nongoma in Mhlabatini where the president of the IFP comes from. I was amazed. Over two days I had about 6,000 people who had registered as members there and more than 5,000 in Ulundi. It says to me the people are coming in in their numbers…I think people are taking it as a breath of fresh air.

Q: How do you rate your chances as woman leader of a political party? A: There is always a first. I know that it is the first time that South Africa has a black woman as a leader of a political party. I know that it is still very difficult for some traditionalists to believe that a black woman can successfully lead a party but I think we are going to succeed because of the people that I have, the calibre of the leadership that I have and also the ground support that we have – I do believe that we will definitely succeed.

Q: Have you learnt any lessons from Helen Zille’s experiences? A: One of the lessons I’ve learnt from her is to be there when people need you. Not be there only when it is elections. I’ve seen her traveling the whole country, going to the territories that were not pro-Democratic Alliance previously. I think that is a lesson – I personally believe very much in people and in communities and in working with them.

Q: As a woman, do you have any intention to canvas support from other women specifically? A: I do believe that women will definitely support me. Women are more sympathetic towards the needs of the people…If there is no food at home on the table, you know best as a woman. If you don’t have money to pay your children’s school fees, the person who knows that first is the woman. As a woman, I would know first about the needs of the people, more especially the needs of the poorest of the poor.

Excerpt:

Gender training for peacekeeping operations “is not something you do for two weeks before you go for deployment,” says Florence Butegwa, UNIFEM representative to the African Union (AU) and U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

Private Linda Mensah patrols the city of Buchanan with the Ghanaian Battalion of the United Nations Mission in Liberia. Credit:

The growing international recognition of the value of female peacekeepers has spurred efforts by the AU, with support from UNIFEM, to increase the number of women in its peacekeeping operations.

Nigeria is leading the way in terms of African women’s presence in the deployment of peacekeeping forces, and is hoping to increase numbers in line with the global effort launched just over a year ago to raise the proportion of women in United Nations Police (UNPOL) peacekeeping operations to 20 percent by 2014.

This would be just over double the current 8.7 percent – 1,218 UNPOL women deployed around the world – according to the U.N.

Other African countries are following suit. Rwanda will be deploying 130 women under the joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping force in Darfur later this year.

Excerpts of Butegwa’s interview with TerraViva follow.

Q: What specific efforts are being made to ensure the recruitment of more female peacekeeping officers? A: This is part of the ongoing conversation at the African Union and with the member countries, because the recruitment is the responsibility of the member country. In countries like Rwanda we are partnering with the Ministry of Defence and the police forces to ensure that the country increases its own recruitment and focus on women in the armed forces.

The idea is to ensure that there is not only an increase in the numbers of women in Rwanda’s armed forces but also, when they contribute to U.N. or AU operations, those women who are very well trained will be deployed and that they will be of a level of seniority to make a difference.

Q: How have member states responded? A: It varies from country to country. In Liberia, the effort was to have well-educated armed forces that understand human rights. Many women could not qualify, partly because of the general level of education of women in the country.

The government was able, with the support of the peace-keeping mission and U.N. organisations, to come up with a special curriculum for accelerated qualification for women and young men.

Q: The AU Commission is developing a gender-training manual for peacekeeping operations. How will the manual be used and by whom? A: UNIFEM is supporting the Gender Directorate in this regard and the manual will be available for use both by the AU institutions and, most importantly, the troop-contributing countries. The idea is that gender should be integrated in the curriculum for training armed forces.

It’s not something you do for two weeks before they go for deployment. For effectiveness it must be part of the culture of training.

Q: What effect have women in peacekeeping missions had on peace and security in conflict zones? A: It depends. For instance, I worked in Liberia [where] the whole idea is that women survivors – particularly of gender- based violence – feel more comfortable opening up to some of these women peacekeepers.

But dealing with and responding to gender-based violence as well as knowing how to understand the gender relations in a conflict area should be the responsibility of absolutely everyone.

Q: How is the opening of the application process to women likely to affect the nature of training which is perhaps viewed as having a very ‘masculine’ ethos? A: I don’t know, because this is the beginning of a process. So far, in some countries they see a change, but obviously I think the underlying values of the command structure being masculine in nature also has to be interrogated. There has to be some conversation because it’s not just about passing on information and if the structures do not allow a soldier to respond accordingly…

The training obviously should not just be for rank and file [soldiers], because if the senior commanders are not able to integrate gender sensitivity in their command structure, then you don’t have an impact.

Q: Won’t women in peacekeeping forces themselves be vulnerable in any way to gender-based violence? A: Without institutionalized gender sensitivity there is always a risk of that, but we have countries that have had soldiers who are women. For example, in the U.S. there are occasional cases of sexual harassment and abuse.

The important thing is that it is clear policy that this is unacceptable and that there is a mechanism for redressing that. So we hope that African governments take [it] seriously and the same kind of models are put in place.