Change the narrative on GBV and rehabilitate perpetrators - survivor
A survivor of gender-based violence, Vanessa Chetty, has told delegates at the Gauteng provincial government GBV and femicide summit in Boksburg that more needs to be done towards changing the narrative around the crisis.
This would include reaching out to boys and rehabilitating perpetrators.
Chetty, who has been working as an activist in communities for 34 years, was raped by a close family friend at the age of six.
She described how the man she’s named “Uncle P” lured her into his home after promising her sweets while she played with friends.
Chetty said after she was threatened with more harm by her rapist, she didn’t report the incident for years to come.
“The fear of not being believed became a portal for this monster to repeatedly rape me for the next five years,” she said.
Speaking at the Gauteng gender-based violence summit on Monday, the community activist said she tried to commit suicide thrice and resorted to self-harm before she found the courage to speak with a counsellor.
[IN PICTURES]: The @GautengProvince Gender-Based Violence & Femicide Summit is underway at Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre. The focus of the Summit is to deepen the understanding of GBVF in the province, with a specific focus on the impact of GBVF on different target groups pic.twitter.com/BaQh2NRFgq
— GautengGov (@GautengProvince) August 29, 2022
In 2008, she met her rapist in a parking lot where he was begging for money.
She noticed he had only one leg when he knocked on her window, asking for money.
“I reached into my purse shaking and quivering…I gave him moment and saw that he was suffering more than me, and I said to him: ‘I forgive you’.”
A few weeks later the man’s body was discovered at a nearby stream. Later on Chetty also learned that he had raped three of her childhood friends when they were younger.
She said while it does not exonerate him from his crimes, nor does it minimise her own trauma, she realised that her rapist had grown up in a very abusive environment where his father physically and emotionally abused their mother, and abused alcohol and marijuana.
“He was beaten many times by his dad and the only form of touch that he ever felt from his dad was that of a slap across his face. Violence became a normal part of his life, and as a teen he turned to his own addictions."
She said the lack of fathering and role models in society is a contributor to GBV in society.
“Implement programs that rehabilitate perpetrators as well. I will never express a blanket theory that all perpetrators are previous victims of violence, neither will I say that all perpetrators are male. But what I will say is that there are victims who manifest as adult pepertrators.”
Chetty the same focus placed on girl children for raising awareness on GBV, the same needs to be done for boys. Her sentiments were echoed by Gauteng Premier David Makhura, who delivered the keynote address at the event.
“We do want our boy children themselves to get opportunities, to get education and not to land in drugs or crime which will make the situation worse. Its men and women who must be involved jointly in the fight against patriarchy and the fight against GBV,” Makhura said.
Makhura said for the war against GBV and femicide to be won unity, solidarity, organising and activism among women and the mobilisation of men is needed.
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