The scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) has taken centre stage at the first national convention of the National Dialogue, with calls for enhanced protection of lesbians.

During the dialogue labs to discuss 10 different themes, the gender and GBV theme saw a number of challenges raised by Johannesburg-based human rights organisation Iranti, which warned against attempts to erase lesbian women in terms of reporting GBV.

Iranti programmes manager Ntuthuzo Ndzomo said the fear of reporting cases stems from authorities being quick to judge lesbians.

He told the dialogue lab that GBV cases were more likely to reach the mainstream if they involve a middle class black or white woman.

Ndzomo made the example of a case Iranti tried to report in uMlazi, eThekwini, of a pastor who publicly called for lesbians to be killed, but they were met with bureaucratic brick walls.

“Lesbians reporting GBV are asked what they were doing while dating another woman,” he explained.

Ndzomo said one of the reasons organisations such as Iranti decided to participate in the national convention was the much publicised decision by legacy foundations to withdraw from the two-day convention.

“We felt it was important to participate and show that these foundations do not even have members,” he added.

A number of political parties, trade unions, and interest groups publicly announced their snubbing of the gathering.

Opening the national convention on Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the event was a space where South Africans will share their views and make suggestions without hesitation and also be direct and honest.

He said during the national convention, there will need to be difficult conversations about many issues, including why South African women have to live in fear of the country’s men.

“We as the men of South Africa must begin to internalise this question, why do the women of South Africa fear us – in the streets, in the classrooms and even in our homes? We need to ask ourselves those questions,” said Ramaphosa.

He asked: “Why, when we have a Bill of Rights, are LGBTQI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning and intersex) people still discriminated against, stigmatised, and harassed?”

Iranti’s Peace Maquba said they were not sure whether to put intersex issues under youth and children because it does not necessarily fit perfectly into the LGBTQI+ space but does for intersex adults.

Maquba, a representative of the intersex community in Africa, explained that they work for the intersex community, which are people outside the binary based on their sex characteristics.

“It is visible for some intersex people at birth, who are born with ambiguous genitalia, who are then forced to pick a binary, parents are coerced to pick a binary for their children, which is intersex genital mutilation,” Maquba said.

According to Maquba, this affects children and teenagers in schools who get bullied as other intersex people start showing they are intersex at puberty.

“Some intersex people’s bodies develop differently and then they go through bullying, then they drop out of school because of the harmful behaviours that they experience,” added Maquba.

The gender and GBV dialogue lab on Friday was attended by Deputy Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Mmapaseka Steve Letsike, ANC Treasurer-General Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, and Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, chairperson of the Commission for the Promotion of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities.

loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za

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