Violence Against Women
Source: CapeArgus
The justice and social development ministries will host awareness and education meetings in Cape Town’s townships and KwaThema near Joburg against “corrective rape” – a term used to describe the rape of lesbians to “cure” them of their sexual orientation.
This emerged yesterday during a briefing on the government’s programme for Women’s Month in August.
“It is to educate communities about the rights of lesbian women,” said Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities Lulu Xingwana.She added that the Justice Ministry had established a task team, which included NGOs, to investigate and make recommendations so that the justice minister could address challenges, “particularly the criminals who are involved in this so-called corrective rape”.
The meeting in Cape Town takes place next Sunday; a date for Joburg has yet to be announced.
After the gang-rape and murder of Noxolo Nogwaza in KwaThema in April, about 170 000 people across the world have signed a petition calling for an end to corrective rape. There has also been a call to declare corrective rape a hate crime.
Luleki Sizwe, a charity assisting rape survivors in Cape Town, estimates that each week at least 10 lesbians are raped, but few cases are reported because victims are afraid of the associated stigma and police ridicule.
Other Women’s Month campaigns, Xingwana said, would raise awareness to try to prevent the transmission of HIV/Aids from mother to child and to increase the number of people donating blood.
There would be a special focus on women donating blood, as “bleeding during childbirth” was one of the factors in maternal deaths.
Regarding specifics on plans to lower maternal and child mortality rates, Xingwana referred to her colleague Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, saying only that the two departments were working on improving statistics on maternal deaths.
Earlier this year, Motsoaledi said one in every three pregnant women attending public clinics was HIV positive, and that about 35 percent of child deaths and 43 percent of maternal deaths could be attributed to HIV/Aids.
During the health budget debate in May it emerged that South Africa was failing to reduce the maternal death rate as required under the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Statistics indicate that maternal mortality increased to 626 per 100 000 live births from 369 per 100 000 live births.
The MDG target is 20 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births.The government programme for Women’s Month was launched last night with the National Women’s Conference in Boksburg to coincide with Pan African Women’s Day.
Xingwana said Women’s Month would honour not only the 1956 women’s anti-pass law march to the Union Buildings, but also the legacy of stalwarts such as Bertha Gxowa and Albertina Sisulu.