THE president of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa, Kgoshi Lameck Mokoena, has called on the government to work with amakhosi in fighting the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide.
Mokoena was speaking during the men's dialogue held in Mbombela, Mpumalanga on Tuesday, 14 November. The dialogue is a build-up towards the launch of 16 Days of Activism for no violence against women and children. Mokoena said the government should allow amakhosi to use tribal laws in fighting the scourge of GBV in communities.
"I wish democracy didn't take away the powers that we had as amakhosi. We used to deal with this thing of domestic violence decisively. We never hesitated to deal with such cases once they came to our attention. We accepted when they said we can no longer deal with this as amakhosi as there are people who are better placed to deal with this but unfortunately people who are assigned to deal with domestic violence and gender-based violence are not doing it. Some of them who are given these powers are abusers," he said.
"Bring those powers to amakhosi and you will see how we deal with perpetrators and how we deal with abusers. Some of these stupid men are afraid to face amakhosi. Some of these stupid men don't even know how to propose love to women."
At least 614 cases of rape have been reported in various police stations in Mpumalanga from April to June this year, 73 sexual offences and 332 people have been killed in GBV and femicide-related cases.
ALSO READ: Ward councillor: Let's become izimpipi
Mandla Neku from the Department for Women, Youth and Person with Disabilities said ending GBV and femicide would need a societal approach.
Neku said this was not the time to be pointing fingers at each other but work as a collective to bring in the much-needed change.
"We're really sitting on a time ticking bomb of gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa. What we also noted is that femicide is becoming a problem. Men need to take a stand on that. Our work needs to stop gender-based violence before it happens, more than responding. We must make sure that our efforts focus on prevention more than anything," he said.
Meanwhile Sipho Zitha, the co-founder of SA Men First - a civil society based in White River which assists men to create platforms on how best they can assist in fighting GBV, said they had identified gaps in the responses to GBV.
He said the responses seemed to be more focused on the victims and leaving out the perpetrators.
"We're saying let us create platforms for men to discuss issues, get educated, understand the psychological make up of women and how can they relate to women," he said.
