Cohabiting couples who are without tertiary education are most likely to be engaged in gender-based violence (GBV).
This was revealed by the first ever study conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council on gender-based violence in South Africa.
According to Dr Nompumelelo Zungu, the principal investigator at the council, men and women who are cohabiting with only secondary education reported high levels of violence in their lives.
Zungu said this as she delivered the study to the minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth, and People with Disabilities of South Africa in Pretoria on Monday.
Black women and violence
“This study was conducted in 2022 towards the end of the Covid-19 pandemic by a group of trained professionals who were able to get victims of any kind of violence, including disabled people, to talk about the impact of this pandemic,” said Zungu.
She revealed that black women were the most affected by the violence, as their statistics reflect a significantly higher proportion.
“Physical violence is significantly higher in black women, even though we cannot say that these factors are a cause. However, they have been linked with violence.
“These include cohabitation, education, transactional relationships, and food security,” Zungu explained.
She stated that the nature of a cohabitation relationship may be the basis for the violence.
“In this kind of relationship, two people live together, sharing finances, resources, and so on, like in a marriage.
“Perhaps we should do more research on why this kind of romantic relationship [cohabitation] has a high record of abuse compared to marriage.”
Many cases not reported
According to the study, 33.1% (nationally) of women aged 18 years and older had experienced physical violence in their lifetime.
This translates to an estimated 7 310 389 women who have experienced physical violence in their lifetime.
About 9.8% had experienced sexual violence in their lifetime, translating to an estimated 2 150 342 women who have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.
These numbers are based on the 97% participation of women in the study.
Most of those cases do not get reported to the police, said Zungu, because the violence happens at home with sexual partners or family members.
“With education, it doesn’t mean that South African men do know what GBV is or what the law requires of them.
“It is not necessarily that people do not know about GBV, but GBV is about power. We can confirm that in South Africa men know about law; we need to bridge the gap between knowledge and behaviour.”
16 days of activism
Accepting the study, minister Chikunga highlighted that despite low levels of abuse against men, it exists.
Said Chikunga: “The release of this study is timely as it coincides with our preparations for the 16 days of activism against GBV on women and children.
“We support this study, and we say no to GBV. If a man abuses women, they must stop and the same goes for women. We cannot build a society with violence.”
Chikunga added that the findings of the study will contribute to an ongoing focus on prevention, enhanced protection for victims, and ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable.
“We are currently preparing for our five-year strategic session.
“We need community intelligence on this complex subject — researchers, scholars, advocates, and activists who will go beyond reproducing mainstream narratives and get a granular picture from communities that face violence even street level.”
