BONUS - RUSTENBURG - Research conducted by the TEARS Foundation (Transform Education About Rape and Sexual abuse) in South Africa, provides insight into different districts in terms of the prevalence of violence and the occurrence of gender-based violence (GBV).
Conducted in partnership with the University of Johannesburg (UJ), the report covers a four-year period, from January 2020 to December 2023, focusing primarily on time series analysis, location of calls, frequency of calls from the same number, and prevalence of calls during certain times of the year.
While the findings are based on 53 004 calls received over the four-year period, this number excludes the calls that were not completed, wished to remain anonymous, and could not be captured for the sake of pure accuracy.
The Limpopo province has been found to have the highest call rate at 104 calls per 100 000 people, followed by North West with a call rate of 103 calls per 100 000 people. The findings include that the largest number of calls were received on Sundays (8 541) followed by Tuesdays (8 524) and then Mondays (8 332).
The precise statistics, according to Mara Glennie, Founder of TEARS Foundation, are a positive step towards improving data on gender-based violence and will help to inform efforts aimed at developing better, responsive and appropriate interventions, resources and policies. Such intelligence exposes where to target resources and what kind of support is required, while also serving an important monitoring and evaluation function to determine the efficacy of interventions.
“Our findings come at a perfect time, considering President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Bill, which will play a critical part in helping coordinate and provide strategic leadership to the efforts,” Glennie said. "Research shows people are aware of the prevalence of the different kinds of GBV being perpetrated in South Africa and agree that addressing the issue of GBV must extend to the workplace, especially because previous research proved that GBV necessarily impacts victims’ performance at work and hence the profitability of the company."
Professor Corné Davis, Associate Professor at the Department of Strategic Communication, Faculty of Humanities at UJ, also noted that the imbalance of power relationships in families and communities are partly the root cause of gender-based violence.
Heeding the earlier research findings, TEARS Foundation appealed to business leaders to speak out against gender inequality in the workplace and to address issues such as gender discrimination, while providing more support to enable women’s empowerment.
Statistics revealed by the research:
* Rustenburg Municipality has the second highest prevalence of GBV calls in the country
* North West call centres received 103 calls out of every 100 000 people (third highest in the country)
* The Bojanala call rates are higher than 100 per 100 000 (fourth highest in the country)
* Most calls are received at noon and in the months of November (9 078), December (8 325) and September (7 029)
* The most active time frame for logged calls was between the hours of 19:00 to 22:00
* Most emergency calls are on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
