Cape Town - Anti-gender-based violence organisations at the grassroots level that are available to support programmes for men are inadequate and those available are not funded.
This was one of the concerns raised by men who attended the Imbizo Ya Madoda yesterday in Khayelitsha, where Police Minister Bheki Cele joined them for an engagement aimed at creating and enhancing active and meaningful participation of men in the fight against Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) domestic violence and sexual offences.
The imbizo comes on the heels of the rape of a 19-year-old from Makhaza who is still recovering in hospital after she was gang-raped and assaulted, allegedly by an ex-lover and his friends, while she was walking home from a friend’s house.
The imbizo was attended mainly by men from Harare, Lingelethu-West, Site B, and Makhaza policing precincts. These areas reported some of the highest GBV cases.
Myolisi Magibisela from the area said there were programmes by and for men but these were not supported or funded. Magibisela called on the police department and the private sector organisations to source funds to ensure that men, especially in hot spots and underprivileged areas, had access to such programmes.
The men also criticised the disconnect within the justice system. They said the granting of bail was reversing the work done by the police.
Cele said the solution to the fight against GBV lay with men. He said men should have answers on what must be done to men who raped and killed women and children.
Cele said that more than 10 000 women were raped in the first three months, and 50 percent of them were by men who identified as family members.
Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen said he was hopeful that the engagement would lead to action and ensure that gender-based violence was eradicated in the Khayelitsha community.