Lwandle police hosted a men’s dialogue to engage on the burning topic of gender-based violence (GBV), which plagues the community.
The main focus of the event, hosted at the Christian Fellowship Church in Strand last Saturday (6 August), was to find solutions that will help eradicate incidents of domestic abuse or gender-based violence, an ever-increasing social ill in Lwandle.
According to Lwandle police spokesperson Sergeant Mthokozisi Gama, the idea was to engage with men from the community on the phenomenon as a key factor in its eradication. They were also urged to speak freely on gender-related issues that plagued them and/or which are experienced daily.
“Lwandle police receive, on average, almost 50 gender-based violence cases a month,” Gama pointed out.
“Alcohol, relationship struggles and employment issues are some of the contributing factors that are causing these high occurrences of gender-based violence.”
At the dialogue men were urged to play a role in creating a safer environment for everyone.
“We requested the men to take full responsibility,” said Gama. “We also urged men to report GBV cases they were aware of, even though most cases were opened by women.”
Lwandle Spiritual Crime Prevention, The Cornerstone Men’s Network, Khayelitsha Cluster Men For Change, the Department of Social Development and Lwandle Community Police Forum were the organisations represented in the dialogue, and which delivered positive input.
Vuyani Shwane, chairperson of The Cornerstone Men’s Network, stated men have an important role to play.
“Sometimes men are labelled as trash,” he said. “Some of them are broken and depressed. Sometimes they feel excluded. They tend to use and abuse substances because they are crying for help.”
Wilson Siko, pastor of the Christian Fellowship Church, said the problem is that men don’t attend church anymore. “They (men) need to come back to church, which is where they will find help,” he said.
Vuyani Xelelo, a community member of Lwandle, felt the next dialogue should include advice for young men. “GBV must stop,” he declared. “Everyone has challenges in their marriages. But the issue is no-one gets information on how to handle women and how to respect wives and girlfriends.”
Those attending this first event made a call for another men’s dialogue, to take the discussion on men’s issues further and find solutions to end gender-based violence and eliminate it from the community.
