15 September 2019
A number of celebrated artists and prominent people were implicated in various sexual offences and outed through anonymous twitter accounts and other informal means in the past few weeks.
As South Africans grapple with toxic masculinity, the names of Da Les, DJ Fresh and Tumi Sole, to name a few, were released on social media as alleged perpetrators of violence against women.
Except for Fresh, whose accuser Penny Lebyane is a veteran broadcaster, most of those claiming to be victims have elected to remain anonymous.
The alleged perpetrators, without exception, have claimed to be victims of women acting out of malice, conjuring up violence that has never happened.
Ethically, this is a tricky matter to handle. We all know how women face double victimisation when they interact with the broader criminal justice system in our country. The cost of litigation is high too. We all know how issues of sexual violence have also been under-reported. Small wonder some women only manage to gain the courage to voice their pain decades after the fact.
At the same time society has no way of determining whether those who claim to have been violated are indeed truthful and genuinely seek justice when they do not report their cases to relevant police for investigation. It would indeed be terrible if there are scoundrels who take advantage of the prevailing anti-abuse environment in the country to maliciously tarnish the names of innocent men.
Lebyane did well by not using anonymous means. But simply stating that Fresh attacked her is unfortunately not enough.
Her claims must be put before him and adjudicated by fair and impartial officers of the law. Otherwise this exercise serves only to tarnish Fresh’s name without according both parties an opportunity to test the claims.
The fight against misogyny is not strengthened through rumour and innuendo, but through application of the law.
If anything, the spreading of rumours through anonymous twitter accounts undermines the genuine battle that must be waged against perpetrators.
Question remains… how we got here?
The appearance of former SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng at the Commission of Inquiry into State of Capture may have provided comical relief and improved viewer ratings for some television channels.
In truth, though, it called for a moment of reflection. How did we leave such a multi-billion state organisation in the hands of a person who is not only incoherent, illogical but also hollow? His departure has literally meant the end of an error.
The R3.2bn bailout necessary to fix the SABC is largely to fix the error that was Motsoeneng’s ruinous reign. In the end, we must all shoulder a responsibility for the indifference we displayed when his appointment required the nation to stand up against this gaffe.
