Women’s activism around gender-based violence in South Africa: recognition, redistribution and representation

Abstract

South Africa is a country struggling to come to grips with very high levels of gender-based violence (GBV) that is eroding the social fabric of society. Using Nancy Fraser’s theory of redistribution, recognition and representation as a starting point, the author shows the importance of acknowledging these dimensions in struggles and activism around GBV, illustrating the theory with the Shukumisa Campaign and the activities of the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) in South Africa. Both these campaigns engage the state to end GBV in order to change conditions of misrecognition and maldistribution, yet with very different outcomes.

[L’activisme des femmes autour de la violence basée sur le genre en Afrique du Sud : reconnaissance, redistribution et représentation.] L’Afrique du Sud est un pays qui lutte pour venir à bout des niveaux très élevés de violence basée sur le genre, qui érode le tissu social de la société. Sur la base de la théorie de Nancy Fraser sur la redistribution, la reconnaissance et la représentation, l’auteur montre l’importance de reconnaitre ces dimensions dans les luttes et l’activisme autour de la violence basée sur le genre, illustrant la théorie avec la campagne de Shukumisa et les activités de la Ligue du congrès national africain des femmes en Afrique du Sud. Ces deux campagnes engagent l’État pour en finir avec la violence basée sur le genre, afin de changer les conditions qui mènent à des erreurs de reconnaissance et à une mauvaise répartition, mais aboutissent pourtant à des résultats très différents.

Keywords:

• gender-based violence
• redistribution
• recognition
• representation
• Shukumisa Campaign
• ANC Women’s League
• South Africa

Mots-clés:

• violence basée sur le genre
• redistribution
• reconnaissance
• représentation
• campagne de Shukumisa
• la Ligue des femmes du Congrès national africain
• Afrique du Sud

Note on contributor

Professor Amanda Gouws holds a National Research Foundation/Department of Science and Technology South African Research Chairs Initiative Chair in Gender Politics. Her research interests are women and citizenship, women’s representation and women’s movements. She is the editor of (Un)Thinking citizenship: feminist debates in contemporary South Africa (Ashgate/Juta 2005). Her co-edited book with Daiva Stasiulis, Gender and multiculturalism: north–south perspectives, appeared with Routledge in 2014. In 2012 she was awarded the Wilma Rule Award for Best Paper in the category ‘Women and Politics’ by the International Political Science Association.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For a contextualisation of GBV in South Africa, see Gqola (2015).

2. I am using the term ‘strategies’ rather than ‘repertoires of action’ since repertoires of action has a specific meaning in social movement literature that may not be quite applicable here.

3. Many women’s organisations that concentrated on activism became NGOs after 1994, with staff and donor funding making activism more difficult.

4. It includes, inter alia, Agisanang Domestic Abuse Prevention and Training, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Childline, Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit, Justice and Women, Lethabong Legal Advice Centre, Mosaic (providing counselling and other services for rape survivors), Masimanyane Women's Support Centre, Nisaa Institute for Women's Development, People Opposing Women's Abuse, OUT, Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (RAPCAN), Rape Crisis (Cape Town), Rape Crisis (Port Elizabeth), Remmoho, Sonke Gender Justice Network (working with men), Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), Teddy Bear Clinic (for children), Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Trust, Thusanang Advice Centre, Tswaranang Legal Advocacy Centre, Western Cape Network on Violence Against Women, Women and Men Against Child Abuse, Women's Net, Women's Legal Centre and Women on Farms Project.

5. True contends that we cannot only use legal and criminal justice solutions as interventions into violence, because women's economic and social subordination makes them vulnerable to violence at home, at work or elsewhere (True 2010, 41, see also True 2012).

6. This information can be found on the Progressive Women's Movement website: ‘After extensive discussions, as the ANCWL and Alliance partners we have agreed that a Women's Movement is a broad front of women's organizations, grassroots organisations of all kinds, feminist oriented groups, researchers, faith-based organizations, traditional healers, women involved in policy formulation and programmes’ (ANCWL 2016). Even though it reflects a wide variety of organisations, loyalty to the ANC is the central criterion for belonging.

7. The One in Nine Campaign is concerned with the under-reporting of rape and has been involved in contentious politics. During the celebration of South Africa's Women's Day on 9 August 2012 they stopped the ANCWL's celebratory march in outfits with skeleton motives to indicate that given the high levels of GBV there is nothing to celebrate.

8. This is not to deny that motherhood has always been a platform of power for African women, but to argue that it can undermine women's liberation in some contexts.

9. Double burden refers to working in the labour force and doing care work at home; triple burden includes care for the sick and elderly on top of the double burden.

10. I am not arguing that her case should not be championed, but my concern is about the prioritisation of this type of case by the ANCWL, rather than that of a poorer Coloured victim who had no-one to speak on her behalf.