Cape Town - Women’s Month comes to an end on Wednesday, and this year was significant as it was the 60th anniversary of the women’s march to the Union Buildings in 1956.
While the government has striven to end gender violence and disparity, there are many thousands of women whose lives have remained the same.
Unemployment, HIV, sexual assault and being abandoned by partners are just some of the challenges women face, but for Mirtle Verrooi and Noxolo Nqolobe this is compounded by being blind.
The 2015 Millennium Development Goals country report highlights that gender-based violence remains a stubborn concern, and dealing decisively with this matter is essential for achieving equality and the empowerment of women.
Stats SA deputy director-general for population and social statistics Kefiloe Masiteng says more females (71.3 percent) experienced sexual offences than their male counterparts (28.7 percent), while more males (72.9 percent) experienced assault than females (27.1 percent) during 2014/15.
Verrooi is blind, uses a wheelchair and lives in a small shack in Sophiatown, an informal settlement near Blackheath. There is no electricity, water or proper toilet for her to use.
Her life has not been easy. She has no one to turn to and says she has lived in an abusive relationship for the past seven years.
She worked on a farm but had to leave when she lost her sight - due to continual physical abuse by her partner.
“I used to do everything for myself, but this,” she said, pointing at Andrew Koopman, “drinks and smokes drugs and sleeps wherever he wants. He beats me and doesn’t care about me.”
Verrooi fumbles her hands in the air and finally grabs Koopman and pushes him away. Koopman remains sitting in the shack with a bottle of wine next to him, listening to her but saying nothing.
Neighbour Xoliswa Williams says they have been living like that since they started dating seven years ago. “He used to beat her even before we all moved here.
“We used to stay near Wesbank, but even here they fight almost every day, especially when they drink. He is the reason she is blind; she used to have swollen eyes every morning,” Williams says.
To compound matters, she injured her back when she pulled down a washing line, which is the reason why she uses a wheelchair.
All Verrooi does during the day is sleep or just sit in her shack, not being able to do anything, while Koopman looks for garden jobs. Her immediate family stopped contacting her because she says they disapprove of her relationship with a younger man.
According to the Victims of Crime Survey Data report released by Stats SA, most gender-based crimes are likely to occur either in the home or among people who know each other, and with the influence of either alcohol or drugs. This implies that regardless of whatever crime strategies the police adopt, many of these crimes will continue to occur unless behaviour and value changes takes place in society.
In Delft, blind mother Noxolo Nqolobe, 40, is heartbroken after her family took away her three children. She is not sure why she went blind. Her eyesight deteriorated over the years and by 2003 she was completely blind.
She has a disability grant which takes care of her basic needs, and she lives in an RDP house with her partner.
A social worker was assigned to her case, but she remains unhappy, fearing that her blindness means the state will not return her children, aged six, nine and 13. She claims her family believes she is not a fit mother.
“All my life has been like that, being abused by a person who was supposed to be protecting me,” she says, referring to her family who took her children.
“I can take care of myself and my children. I have raised them together with my husband all these years. I am a mother just like any other woman. My disability doesn’t change the person that I am or my capabilities.”
The country report says historically marginalised groups still bear the greatest poverty burden, notably female-headed households, rural families, black and coloured people.
The report says South Africa continues to struggle to address cultural and societal norms and practices that perpetuate gender inequality in society. Patriarchal norms of male control continue to limit female access to, and participation in, education, employment and political decision-making.
Cape Times