South Africa: Debate on 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children

Parliamentary remarks by LL Van der Merwe
Year after year, we repeat the same issues. We raise the same concerns. We highlight the same worrying facts. And year after year, between debates, we are confronted with countless, horror stories of abused women and children. Does anything change? Are we making any progress?

I have no doubt that we are sincere in engaging this debate. But a real threat exists of our nation becoming desensitised, to the plight, of the most vulnerable in our society. This debate, should therefore, be refocused. It must interrogate specifically how well, or how poorly, we have done in the past year. Did we succeed in the undertakings we made, during this debate last year? Have we seen real success in the war against violence?

Well, police reports suggest that we have. According to them, cases of gender-based violence are decreasing. But we cannot console ourselves with this information, alone. Reality demands our attention, and we must acknowledge that such data can be misleading.

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