South Africa: Government Plan Addresses Criminal Justice Bottlenecks

Violence against women is more likely to be reduced if violence among boys and among men is not accepted as normal and inevitable. The 9 September murder of Elizabeth Moselakgomo and subsequent revelations that at least 10 women's bodies were found in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, between 15 July and 28 September, have focused attention on gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa. On 29 September, President Cyril Ramaphosa presented a five-point plan to reduce the risk of violence against women in public spaces and resolve bottlenecks in the criminal justice system to deal with existing cases. He also stressed the importance of preventing violence. However, the plan is silent on what prevention looks like and how it will be resourced. Preventing violence against women is, and must be, a national priority. The good news is that doing so can also prevent other forms of violence. A comprehensive violence prevention strategy would acknowledge that South Africa will be better able to reduce violence against women if violence among boys and among men is not accepted as normal and inevitable. Follow us on WhatsApp | LinkedIn for the latest headlines To break entrenched cycles of violence, South Africa must treat all forms of violence as unacceptable - including men's use of violence against other men. The country must prevent children of all genders from being exposed to violence, particularly in the home, and respond with care and attention when this happens. Intimate partner violence is a primary mechanism through which violence is transferred from one generation to the next. When children experience and are exposed to violence in their home, they are more likely to become perpetrators and victims of violence later in life, establishing patterns that are hard to break. And exposure to intimate partner violence predicts criminal behaviour. Addressing harmful beliefs and norms about masculinity and violence would address men's violence against both women and men. Risk factors for the use of violence include not finishing school, not having the skills to solve conflicts without violence, having poor emotional regulation, poor mental health, and substance abuse. The fact that men overwhelmingly perpetrate violence suggests that many of these factors are more prevalent among men than women. A holistic strategy is needed to address the problem - one that inculcates non-violent gender-equitable norms for children, supports parents and caregivers through gender-transformative parenting programmes, and builds children's and adults' skills to resolve conflict peacefully. It should support good emotional regulation for parents and children and include the physical safety elements mentioned by Ramaphosa, such as improving street lighting. International evidence suggests that for women to be safe , children and men must be safe too. The 2019 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime global homicide report found that countries with high female homicide rates also tended to have much higher rates of homicide against men. This is also reflected in South Africa's national and provincial data. National figures show that more than four out of every five murders in South Africa involve male victims. A 2023 analysis of South African post-mortem data found that the provinces with the highest male homicide rates also ranked highest for female homicide. This means that there is a strong correlation between the violence experienced by women and men. And indeed, the evidence suggests that where there are high levels of violence against adults, children are likely to be victimised at a higher rate too. This sets society up for entrenched cycles of violence intergenerationally. The attention on gender-based violence is necessary and important. But focusing on only one kind of violence is likely to be less successful than focusing on the common causes of all forms of interpersonal violence. Rather than just adding men and children to an existing g