Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za

02 September 2025

3-minute read

The surge in gender-based violence despite victims of femicide attaining protection orders against abusive partners is on the rise.

The story of a woman who was allegedly wounded by her boyfriend before he went on a stabbing frenzy and killed his ex-girlfriend, despite her having a protection order against him, now has the woman fearing for her life should he be granted bail.

Acting Director at the Centre for Sexuality, AIDS and Gender at the University of Pretoria, Christi Kruger, says that although protection orders offer limited safety for women, the issue of gender-based violence and femicide is “much broader” than protection orders. Oftentimes, protection orders fail because the person against who the protection order is taken out does not adhere to it, and sometimes there is also a failure by police to act on it.

Kruger believes that although protection orders do not work in certain instances, the reason the authorities are “struggling to contain it” is because of disproportionate load of GBV cases we face in South Africa.

Women in SA are much more likely to be victims of GBV or “intimate partner violence” which is GBV within a relationship, because of:

• Substance abuse by perpetrators who are under the influence of alcohol or intoxicated.
• The patriarchal and societal structure within the country where men exert ownership and control over women, turning violent when these women don’t do what they want.
• The high levels of poverty which means that many women are financially dependent on men.
• The prevalence of boys who are victims of violence becoming perpetrators themselves.
• Emasculation of men who feel they must fill a particular role. A man who considers himself “a real man” would expect to retain sole power in the household and wouldn’t want the women in the home to speak up against him. Such men may interpret a woman leaving them as being emasculated and turn to GBV.

Although there numerous NGO’s who work at combatting GBV, Kruger indicates that the lack of commitment by the state to make resources available to properly address the issue of GBV reduces the efficacy of these campaigns. She stated that we need decisive action by government on the issue of masculinity and we should look at violence in all its forms because GBV does not only constitute physical violence – it can be emotional, psychological and even financial where men withhold funds as a way of inflicting punishment on their partners. “Overall, there’s still a lot of work to be done,” Kruger concluded.

Listen to the full interview with Ml Sulaimaan Ravat and Christi Kruger here.