Media channels and their potency in portraying gender based violence against women among Uitenhage Residents in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-152
Author(s):  
Olawumi Oladimeji ◽  
Oluyinka Osunkunle
Author(s):  
Mutambuli J. Hadji

This article aims to evaluate government's communication strategy and citizens' awareness of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children campaign in Soshanguve, South Africa. The study applied the diffusion of innovation theory because of its ability to assess how communities receive communication about the campaign from various media. Survey method was used to collect data, which was analysed using descriptive statistics. It was found out that mass media and other communication channels were main sources of campaign messages, which help the community to know how to address gender-based violence issues. Notably, this study found that females were more likely to know about the campaign than males. This article recommends that this campaign should be visible throughout the year and there should be more campaigns targeting men, and school curriculum, which educate pupils about the social and economic consequences of GBV.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2(S)) ◽  
pp. 15-25
Author(s):  
Andrew Osehi Enaifoghe

This study looks at the prevalence of gender violence in South Africa particularly, and argues to support a gendered perspective as an approach with the inclusion of women in an effort to address or resolve violence against women. The UNSCR-1325 reaffirmed the significance of gender integration at all levels of peace and security agenda, the purpose underlined in the declaration shows a slow affirmation among international organisations. The effect of gender based brutality is a significant human rights infringement with real social and formative effects for overcoming viciousness. On an individual level, sexual based violence can lead to mental injury, and can have both psychological social and physical ramifications for survivors. Therefore, the argument set forward in support of a gendered viewpoint to deal with violence and peace-building originated from a classified arrangement of political characters, from a collection of controls, with various political sentimentalities and distinctive prescribed techniques for conflicts intervention. Furthermore, the global gendered perspective intervention is also assessed as a strategy by exploring various approaches to deal with global gender-based conflict. The approaches are considered instrumentalist in their various approaches, as they consider women to be instrumental in accomplishing a maintainable peace, but dismissing the issue of how peace can improve the situation of violence against women, and not taking into consideration the issues of gender based violence. This tremendously fails to discourse and address structural disparities and power crescendos or dynamics that underpinned gender discrimination. Findings in this study shows that, there is a need for gendered perspective to address violence and build peace in various civil societies, while taking into account the socio-economic effect of gender violence. Peace and Security plan is goal-oriented and transformative in its discourse. Therefore, it requires women's contribution to fight gender violence at all levels.


De Jure ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nomthandazo Ntlama

South Africa is highly celebrated for its commitment to the promotion of human rights. This has also fostered "rights consciousness" among the citizenry which has become of essence for the advancement of the rights of women who had long been in the "legal cold". However, the significance of the "rights concepts" is marred by the extreme levels of gender-based violence against women. The effect of crimes suffered by women raises questions about South Africa's post-apartheid system of governance and the promotion of the rule of law, which is founded on human rights. With South Africa's history, it is assumed that law has the potential to transform societies in ensuring the fulfilment of rights as envisaged in many national, regional and international instruments. Against this background, this paper focuses on the recent shocking wave of the extreme levels of gender-based violence against women experienced in South Africa with the resultant consequence of the agitation of the public on the independence of the judiciary. Whilst it acknowledges the limitations of the law and the challenges faced by women, it argues against public opinion that seem to wither the democratic character of the state relating to the functioning of the judiciary. It also argues that public opinion waters down the assumption about the capacity of the law in generating social change. In addition, the confidence in the judiciary cannot be replaced by invidious philosophies that appear to compromise the independence of the judiciary as envisaged in the doctrine of separation of powers. The argument advanced herein is limited to the rationality of the calls by further raising a question whether safeguarding independence and impartiality of the judiciary should be outweighed by public outrage on gender-based violence. It also does not profess to provide an expert analysis of the interrelationship between law and social change because of the complexities that exists between these areas. Overall, the paper acknowledges and shares the concerns by the public on the elimination of gender-based violence; however, it refuses the indirect consequence of public opinion on the trampling of judicial authority.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tafadzwa Rugoho ◽  
France Maphosa

This article is based on a study of gender-based violence against women with disabilities. The study sought to examine the factors that make such women vulnerable, to investigate the community’s responses to gender-based violence against women with disabilities, and to determine the impact of gender-based violence on the wellbeing and health of women with disabilities. The study adopted a qualitative research design so as to arrive at an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under study. The study sample consisted of 48 disabled women living in marital or common law unions, selected using purposive sampling. Of the 48 women in the sample, 16 were visually impaired while the remaining 32 had other physical disabilities. Focus group discussions were used for data collection. The data were analysed using the thematic approach. The finding was that women with disabilities also experience gender-based violence. The study makes recommendations whose thrust is to change community perceptions on disability as the only guarantee towards eradicating gender-based violence against women with disabilities.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Snodgrass

This article explores the complexities of gender-based violence in post-apartheid South Africa and interrogates the socio-political issues at the intersection of class, ‘race’ and gender, which impact South African women. Gender equality is up against a powerful enemy in societies with strong patriarchal traditions such as South Africa, where women of all ‘races’ and cultures have been oppressed, exploited and kept in positions of subservience for generations. In South Africa, where sexism and racism intersect, black women as a group have suffered the major brunt of this discrimination and are at the receiving end of extreme violence. South Africa’s gender-based violence is fuelled historically by the ideologies of apartheid (racism) and patriarchy (sexism), which are symbiotically premised on systemic humiliation that devalues and debases whole groups of people and renders them inferior. It is further argued that the current neo-patriarchal backlash in South Africa foments and sustains the subjugation of women and casts them as both victims and perpetuators of pervasive patriarchal values.


Mousaion ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charleen Musonza ◽  
Ndakasharwa Muchaonyerwa

This study examines the influence of knowledge management (KM) practices on public service delivery by municipalities in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The study sought to determine the factors that have triggered the implementation of KM practices; the effectiveness of KM practices towards public service delivery; and the extent to which KM practices have influenced public service delivery by municipalities in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in this study. Quantitative data were collected through a survey questionnaire administered to a sample of 202 employees at the Raymond Mhlaba Municipality in the Eastern Cape. Qualitative data were collected through observations and interviews of 2 senior managers. The data collected gave a response rate of 72 per cent. The quantitative and qualitative data were analysed descriptively and presented verbatim respectively. The results indicated that the internal and external factors included in this study have contributed to the implementation of KM practices in the municipality. Furthermore, the effective use of KM practices has increased the organisational KM initiative, as well as the provision of services such as electricity, education, transport, and social services by the municipality. The study recommends the establishment of KM awareness and the establishment of an integrated system that will assist in effective knowledge sharing, retention and acquisition across municipalities in the Eastern Cape.


Author(s):  
Zorica Saltirovska Professor ◽  
Sunchica Dimitrijoska Professor

Gender-based violence is a form of discrimination that prevents women from enjoying the rights and liberties on an equal level with men. Inevitably, domestic violence shows the same trend of victimizing women to such a degree that the term “domestic violence” is increasingly becoming synonymous with “violence against women”. The Istanbul Convention defines domestic violence as "gender-based violence against women", or in other words "violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately." The situation is similar in the Republic of Macedonia, where women are predominantly victims of domestic violence. However, the Macedonian legal framework does not define domestic violence as gender-based violence, and thus it does not define it as a specific form of discrimination against women. The national legislation stipulates that victims are to be protected in both a criminal and a civil procedure, and the Law on Prevention and Protection from Domestic Violence determines the actions of the institutions and civil organizations in the prevention of domestic violence and the protection of victims. The system for protection of victims of domestic violence closely supports the Law on Social Protection and the Law on Free Legal Aid, both of which include provisions on additional assistance for women victims of domestic violence. However, the existing legislation has multiple deficiencies and does not allow for a greater efficacy in implementing the prescribed measures for the protection of victims of domestic violence. For this reason, as well as due to the inconsistent implementation of legal solutions of this particular issue, the civil sector is constantly expressing their concern about the increasingly wider spread of domestic violence against women and about the protection capabilities at their disposal. The lack of recognition of all forms of gender-based violence, the trivial number of criminal sentences against persons who perform acts of domestic violence, the insufficient support offered to victims – including victim shelters, legal assistance, and counseling, and the lack of systematic databases on domestic violence cases on a national level, are a mere few of the many issues clearly pointing to the inevitable conclusion that the protection of women-victims of domestic violence is inadequate. Hence, the functionality and efficiency of both the existing legislation and the institutions in charge of protection and support of women – victims of domestic violence is being questioned, which is also the subject for analysis in this paper.


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