Gender-based violence has reached undeniably alarming levels in South Africa.
This Sunday, Carte Blanche pays tribute to the men and women who, undeterred, fight for justice as they continue to work hard to ensure that intervention resources remain available to multitudes of women trapped inside their homes with their abusers, who happens to be their intimate partners, as fears of a massive rise in cases of domestic violence under COVID-19 lockdown persist.
For this special investigation, presenter Claire Mawisa asked several individuals she interviews one simple question: What can we do to stop gender-based violence?
“I put this question to the individuals I interviewed for this week’s stories, and every one of them gave me a different answer and idea. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet,” she said, adding: “The solution is multi-layered. It requires dialogue within families, support from communities, effective policing, and committed prosecutors. The responsibility of keeping our women and children safe is not “theirs” – it’s ours. Yours and mine.”
So the question, Mawisa charges, should be directed to every concerned South African citizen. “What did you do today to help keep the most vulnerable safe?”
To help answer this, the investigation looks deep into whether a protection order is useful at all or not, to multitutes of women who continue to suffer under what President Cyril Ramaphosa labelled “the second epidemic”, and most importantly why police seems powerless to enforce it.
The show also looks into one of the biggest loop holes that exists within the system which makes it hard to investigate and bring justice to rape and domestic violence survivors.
When a survivor of intimate-partner violence gets the rare opportunity to take on their perpetrator in court, admissible evidence can be the difference between winning or losing. But evidence, notes and photos of injuries that victims often save on their smartphones can be lost when a perpetrator takes or destroys the device.
Now, ‘Carte Blanche’ meets the developers of a secure online vault that will allow vital evidence to be safely stored in the cloud and out of reach of the abuser. Could the GBV Vault help secure more convictions?
The most gripping GBV lockdown special ever
From a father of an 11 years old rape survivor who launched his own investigation and single-handedly hunted down the perpetrator, to how coronavirus has managed to make its way to old age homes, not to mention how the pain of separation between the elderly and their loved ones has eroded morale and condemned some to a lonely death, this Sunday special of ‘Carte Blanche‘ is poised to go down in history as the most gripping South African GBV lockdown special ever!
For this and more, tune in to ‘Carte Blanche‘, 7pm this Sunday on M-Net (DStv 101).
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