gender violence

Solidarity Helping Hand, a NGO affiliated to mine workers union Solidarity, has come out against Multichoice's decision to test the viability of a pornography channel.

In response to Multichoice’s decision, Solidarity Helping Hands, launched a campaign urging South Africans to vote against the proposal and by sending in an email.

In a press statement, the organisation’s executive director, Danie Langer, says the channel could lead to an increase in child molestation.

Gay rights groups have condemned a Ugandan pastor who screened same-sex pornography in a church to try to bolster support for proposed anti-homosexuality legislation.

Martin Ssempa, one of the main backers of a Bill that would impose the death penalty for some offenders, aired the explicit slideshow to several hundred people during a church service in Kampala.

South African gay rights group, Behind the Mask, has described the video as ’twisted homophobic propaganda’.

Survivors of gender-based violence accommodated in shelters are subsidised by R30 per day per women. R30 is supposed to cover 3 meals per day, including children’s food, and pay for all the others needs of women and their children in the shelter. The burden is on NGOs providing sheltering services to constantly fundraise so that survivors can have access to holistic care. This means that NGOs who cannot source additional funds for survivors will have to stretch R30 and ensure survivors’ needs are covered.

The Women’s Legal Centre (WLC) says however good the recently tabled Protection from Harassment Bill might be, it will fail unless it is properly implemented.

WLC’s Cherith Sanger says the Domestic Violence Act was designed to cover situations where the harassment occurred between partners in a domestic relationship.

Sanger argues that the state’s failure to comply with its duties has often led to dire consequences for women in that they or their loved ones are either killed or seriously injured by their abusers.

The South African Institute for Race Relations (SAIRR) says the Eastern Cape municipalities have the highest murder rate, 54 murders per 100 000 people, and a poverty rate of 62 percent.

In the same vein, the organisation says Limpopo municipalities recorded the lowest murder rate while sharing the same poverty rate. Western Cape municipalities also recorded a high murder rate with a low poverty rate of 27.5 percent.

BOABAB for Women’s Human Rights, a Nigerian-based NGO, has stressed the need for the society to accord women the respect due to them.

The organisation states that women deserve to enjoy their human rights in a male dominated world where men decide affairs including making some fundamental decisions and choices for women, thereby oppressing them.

Sex workers' advocates have called for the decriminalisation of prostitution in South Africa as a preventive measure to contain the spread of HIV during this year's World Cup.

Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce, director, Eric Harper, says that a rise in demand for prostitution during the World Cup could be a ‘recipe for disaster’, as researchers have estimated that almost half of female sex workers in Johannesburg alone have HIV.

Judgement in the hate-speech case against African National Congress Youth League president, Julius Malema, has been reserved in the Equality Court.

Magistrate, Colleen Collis, says that she will indicate the date that judgement will be handed down at a later stage.

Malema was taken to court by the Sonke Gender Justice Network over his comments that President Jacob Zuma's rape accuser had a nice time during the alleged incident.