Page 11 - SCAT GBV Report - Addressing Gender-Based Violence - 2021
P. 11
1.2 Rural dynamics and the role of LDAs
Gender inequality diminishes women’s access to and control over assets and household income. In resource-deprived settings this is compounded, given that ‘women are more vulnerable to poverty because of inequalities in access to productive resources, lack of control over their own labour and earned income, gender biases in labour markets, and the exclusion that women experience in a variety of economic, social and political institutions’ (Jatto, 2004:4). Women in rural areas are further confined by their primary role in the domestic sphere (including the unpaid work of child- rearing, cooking and cleaning), and by unequal access to employment, education, healthcare, property, and financial and other services (ILO, 2019:2). These structural inequalities enable harassment and violence, which then further undermine the right to equality and dignity, and cause physical, psychological and/or sexual harm. As such, inaccessibility to land, education, social and political capital, and employment, are all key to understanding the constraints women face in rural settings. Moreover, conditions of poverty exacerbate vulnerability to GBV and limit the choices available in how violence can be responded to – resulting in women bearing the brunt of gendered role divisions that drive and sustain patriarchal social relations.
In the rural areas in which they operate, LDAs function primarily as community advice offices (CAOs), and are staffed by a combination of paralegals, social workers, fieldworkers and volunteers (Karimakwenda, Moult, Jefthas & Teele, 2020). These place-based organisations provide a wide range of services that focus on welfare, social security, human rights, education and community development, as well as legal aid, mediation, labour disputes, unemployment, domestic violence, drug- related problems, and water, sanitation and housing (HSRC, 2014:22; SCAT, 2019). They also ‘fill a gap in improving access to justice in South Africa’ and ‘form part of a broader ecosystem of civil society organisations’ (DOJ, 2020:2).
Viewed historically, CAOs occupy a critical role in ‘community development and legal empowerment of the poor by working to erase the detrimental legacy of apartheid and the current conditions of poverty experienced by many South Africans’ (Dugan and Drage, 2013:17). In terms of their impact, it is found that CAOs improve access to justice and poverty alleviation for many vulnerable South Africans (Pienaar, Houston, Barolsky, Wentzel, Viljoen & Hagg, 2016). This has been achieved through enabling access to justice services and human rights education, and by monitoring and lobbying for quality service delivery (HSRC, 2014:13).
Although not a specific focus of this study, it is important to note that the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has, in multiple ways, exacerbated the conditions that fuel GBV across South Africa. The Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) conducted a nationwide survey of 127 CAOs and found that 54% had reported an increase in GBV during Covid-19. At the same time, GBV is likely to be underreported in this period, due to restrictions on movement that prevent survivors from leaving their homes to report abuse (FHR, 2020:5). Of particular relevance to the present enquiry is that three quarters of CAOs reported having some form of GBV support services in their community – mostly counselling services – and 88% reported having no shelters for GBV survivors (FHR, 2020:5). These findings are confirmed by Community Advice Offices South Africa’s (CAOSA) analysis of 108 advice offices, which found a decrease in the reporting of domestic violence and rape due to Covid-19 related confinements, and a lack of community shelters that mean women and children are forced to remain with their perpetrators (CAOSA, 2020:4).13 As one respondent in this study remarked: ‘What’s going to be happening on the other side of this coronavirus? What are some of the pieces that organisations like SCAT are going to have to be picking up, and advice offices in turn, post all of this?’.14
13. CAOSA is a political structure that focuses on the recognition, regulation and resourcing of the community advice office sector (Tshenolo Tshoaedi, key informant).
14. Vuyiswa Sidzumo, key informant.
“Finish this Elephant”: Rural Community Organisations’ Strategic Approaches to Addressing GBV 11