Picture: rncypt

Faizel Patel – 13/07/2020

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

As gender-based violence continues to plagues South Africa, mobile operator Vodacom, has launched a campaign called Be the light.

The campaign focuses on to call everyone’s attention to the scourge of gender violence and, appeal to South African men to become change agents and play an active role in ridding our society of gender violence.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has appealed to SA’s corporate sector, civic bodies and churches in the society to partner government as it steps up its fight against gender based violence.

The campaign is launched at a time when the country is gripped by a spate of senseless violence against women and children.

According to the latest Gender Based Violence research, one in four women will experience violence by men and are five times more likely to be killed while a woman is murdered every three hours in South Africa.

Vodacom’s Takalani Netshitenzhe says in recent times, we have seen more and more cases of women dying in the hands of men in the country, so it is about time we shifted the conversation on gender violence to men, so they can be part of the solution.

“In my view, gender-based violence requires men to stand up, call out, and address the violent and aggressive behaviour that we see many women face every day. For this to happen, men need to be the champions in the fight against women abuse and femicide, while shining a light on those perpetrators who continue to abuse women and children without fear or consequence.”

As a long-standing partner of government and civil society organisations that champion the rights of women and children, Vodacom and the Department of Social Development Department worked together to launch the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Command Centre in 2014.

The call centre receives an alarming average of 22000 calls per month. These calls result in tele-counseling at the centre and some calls, based on the severity of the case, are referred to the community-based social workers and the South African Police Service.

The Centre can be reached as follows:

• By dialing 0800 428 428 or via USSD on *120*7867#.
• A Skype line ‘HelpMeGBV’ for members of the Deaf Community.
• An SMS-based line ‘31531