A nation so focused on forgetting is unable to tackle the systemic causes of gender-based violence because it does not address its past perpetuation of this violence. It’s time that we start having frank conversations.

South Africa is a nation at war for decades. The enemy has been its women. With the #16DaysOfActivism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign coming to an end, it becomes imperative to take a moment to rethink, re-evaluate, and adopt a more systemic and solutions-based approach to this “second pandemic”.

The fight against gender-based violence (GBV) must recognise the equal role of business, government, civil society, as well as ordinary South Africans in the struggle. If the statistics continue to rise unabated, then our efforts do not suffice. It is time to re-strategise a way forward.

A number of key areas which can assist in providing a collaborative strategy in the fight against GBV remain unaddressed:

Government

Governmental responses have often been misdirected, lethargic and even counterproductive, and there still exists a gap between legislation and enforcement.

Data collection on violence against women should be consolidated nationally and regionally to ensure that GBV in phenomena, pandemics and/or disasters such as Covid-19 must be…