Over sixty male students at Walter Sisulu University’s Komani Campus recently took a binding pledge to immortalize their solidarity with South African women burdened by the scourge of gender-based violence.
Dubbed the ‘destination of femicide’, more than 2,700 women in South Africa have been murdered in gender-based violence related episodes since the year 2000.
The students who attended a talk facilitated by the university’s Student Development and Support Services (SDSS) united under the banner themed: “Defying GBV, Not in My Name” - an effort that incorporated physical activity to fatigue the body to symbolize the effects of physical and emotional abuse on women.
The initiative is followed by a discussion at the campuses' Grey Street site where the students will interrogate themselves and causes of GBV.
WSU Komani Campus residence officer, Ms Khanyisa Mbali said what inspired the GBVdiscussion show initiative was that students needed a platform to express their own views of GBV and to learn from one another.
“The focus was on male students to also get them to understand the seriousness of the matter and to get them a space to talk openly about what may lead to GBV and what they think needs to be done,” said Mbali.
The GBV talk show follows just months after a university student was found butchered by a jealous boyfriend in East London.
Mbali added that the GBV cases are starting to hit to close to home, saying “they are names we know instead of names we only see on the news. It’s our neighbours and recently our students, therefore we must have a radical approach to this in every corner, every institution and in every way possible,” she said.
She further concluded that, if WSU is going breed a different generation of young men, such programs are the way to start.
By- Sinawo Hermans