I thought GBV was declared a national disaster?

Here’s a shocker! Did you know that you could be concerned about a situation in the country and disagree with how the zeitgeist wants to tackle it? Trying to say that declaring gender-based violence a national disaster was an idiotic move to curb gender-based violence caught so much flak that those who were critical just shut up and said, “go ahead”. I recall being one of them.

Declaration of national disaster

No room to discuss what it means. No room to argue about the results it seeks to derive. Just a narrative of we’ve had enough, this must happen and that will be our victory. Nearly a year later and this victory seems somewhat shallow. Women seem as unsafe and fearful as ever, yet the fighters against GBV got something they wanted; something they even fought for. They got it declared a national disaster… and then?

If anything, the declaration was a gift to perpetrators of GBV because it lowered their victims’ guard and resulted in no tangible consequences for GBV. It took months to get the council together and little has resulted from even that.

A whole national disaster and the political players are still telling women to keep safe. Well, sure, keeping safe is a great idea and women are forced to try do it too often. Coming out and announcing it doesn’t discharge the duty to keep women safe, especially in the context of a national disaster. If women could be safe from the national disaster alone, we wouldn’t have a national disaster to speak of.

Yes, obviously, going for a walk in an unlit street at 2am, in an area riddled with desperation, is a poor idea; thanks for stating the obvious. What’s less obvious is how many people are forced to do that by virtue of their circumstances, but also how that can go without saying because that’s not the problem.

The government has told us about all the interventions it’s taking and how it needs the community to work with it to make these interventions work, blah blah blah. What would be better is to admit that many places are unsafe and then give an indication of how it’ll begin to make them safe. The issue is that it will require work… and governance. Yuck!

Stopping GBV needs more than philosophical victories

It’s no surprise that the country is upset with how things have turned out because you’d think that when one declares a national disaster, the disaster won’t seem worse a year later. Only, that’s all that we did. We declared a national disaster and those calling for it declared victory. There is no victory in declarations. The fight against gender-based violence isn’t won through declaring it a problem. We’ve always known it was a problem and those who didn’t, or those who perpetuated it, are not going to be persuaded because of a few lines in the government gazette.

This is not a battle that is easily won, but it is one that we must win. So when those critical of how to go about winning it start asking questions, instead of shutting them down, understand that being critical about solutions is more helpful in solving the problem than kowtowing to sentiment. There is something to be said about playing into sentiment. It can deliver great results. You just have to keep fighting to get those results.

If you want to allow GBV to continue in the country, keep marching for some philosophical victory on paper. If you want to deal with it, march for a tangible result; march for something that actually makes a difference. Put GBV perpetrators last on the parole list, give all convicts a pink forehead tattoo or make them pay double in taxes.

Marching is easy. Being angry is easy. Putting together a cohesive national strategy that’s executable and not undermined by the likes of poor policing and prosecution… that’s the challenge. Now, where is that council?