The Secretary General of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) has lauded the Justice and Peace Commission (JP) for assisting women and girls victims of violence in South Africa.

In a conversation with the SACBC Communication Office, Fr Hugh O’Connor said the Conference is “very proud” of the JP Commission for their outreach programs to “work against violence in our society,” and for empowering South African women and girls in the face of discrimination and hardship.

Fr O’Connor highlighted the Tavern initiative which reaches “out to men in Taverns, teaching them about violence, especially (violence) against women,” as “encouraging behavior change in that area it is not easy work.”

The JP Commission in collaboration with the United Nations Women (UN Women), UNAIDS, and the Young Women for Life Movement (YWfL) held a one-day event to promote “Generation Equality” under the theme “Prevention Strategies to Stop Violence against Women and Girls and HIV infection among young women.”

In a conversation with the SACBC Communication Office about the event which highlighted the ‘UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women initiative’ that calls for global action to increase awareness, galvanize advocacy efforts, and share knowledge and innovations to end violence against women and girls (VAWG)’ once and for all, keynote speaker Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said that one of the ways to combat violence against women and girls (VAWG) is to “empower women economically.”

“To really deal with gender-based violence, you have to do a number of things. You have to educate families, engage families, you have to engage communities, you have to engage boys, you have to engage women themselves, but at the end of the day, you have to empower women economically, so that they are able to stand alone,” said the Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth, and People with Disabilities of South Africa, Dr. Dlamini-Zuma.

According to South Africa’s Minister of Police Bheki Cele, the South African Police Services (SAPS) recorded a total of 1,485 attempted murders of women in the country, with 969 attaining to women and over 15,000 cases of assaults on women in the first three months of 2023.

“My hope for the future is that there is more women empowerment, economic empowerment because If you give a woman financial security, she will be able to protect herself,” said YWfL Coordinator Andiswa Mthembu.

Ms Mthembu went on to say that if young women “are secured financially” they will be able to get out of the abusive relationships they find themselves in due to “socio-economic challenges in South Africa’s patriarchal society,” which often leads “young women to compromise their sexual and reproductive health to survive from day to day.”

Meanwhile, the representative of UN women in South Africa Aleta Miller said that “faith communities, including the Catholic Church,” are “critical in order how to shape the way that we think.”

“So, we believe in the social-ecological approach, which is the person at the centre and then looking at the circles of influence, their family, their community, including their faith community, their leaders, including traditional leaders, religious leaders, schools, education… if we connect all of these parts of the community, that’s when we’re going to see the change,” said the representative of UN women in South Africa.