Act Against Rape Culture and Sexual Violence – FEDUSA
25 November 2020
The Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) has called on authorities and communities across all regions in South Africa to act against rape culture and sexual violence during this year’s 16 Days of Activism of No Violence Against Women and Children which kicks off today until the 10th December 2020.
The United Nations has defined rape culture as a social environment that allows sexual harassment and sexual violence against women and girls to be widely seen as normal and permissible without any adverse consequences for perpetrators; and thrives in communities characterised by gender and social inequalities and deeply flawed ideas about masculinity, femininity and sexual orientation.
“Rape culture is embedded in the way we think, speak, and move in the world; while the contexts may differ, rape culture is always rooted in patriarchal beliefs, power, and control,” says the United Nation in its statement on the International Day of No Violence Against Women and Children.
Video clips of gratuitous sexual harassment at the Bree Street Taxi Rank in Johannesburg that have trended recently on social media – and a repeat of similar incidents last year- suggest that rape culture is endemic in the country’s major metropolitan areas and forms an integral part of women’s and girls’ lived experience. FEDUSA calls on communities to use this year’s Campaign to question and reject patriarchal behaviour and beliefs that allow rape culture to ruin the lives of the most vulnerable in society.
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A particularly physically and psychological injurious form of rape culture is sexual violence or rape which former South African Deputy President and current United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka says it damages the body and the mind and can have life changing unchosen result such as pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.
The union federation notes that 2020 has been a critical year in the lived experience of women and girls because of the drastic intensification of gender based violence that has now earned itself the terrible title of shadow pandemic and calls on Government to Ratify and Implement ILO Convention 190 and Recommendation 206.
It has been two years since the ILO adopted Convention 190, its ratification is frankly long overdue and FEDUSA calls on government, civil society and business to adopt pro-active steps to fight GBV; it is also equally unacceptable that the so-called corrective rape is still takes place, brutally abusing members of the LBTQI+ community; this is a rape culture that needs to be condemned unambiguously by all and has no place in our society.
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(423 Words)
For interviews please contact:
Ms Dorothy Nokuzola Ndhlovu
FEDUSA Vice President: Gender and Social Justice
076 424 8747
Ms Riefdah Ajam
FEDUSA General Secretary
079 696 2625
Ms Brenda Modise
Head: Social Policy
073 531 5339
Issued by:
Frank Nxumalo
FEDUSA Media and Research Officer
072 637 8096