WATCH | New film urges SA men to end the silence and violence

Filmmaker Anant Singh's latest release is not like any of his previous works.

The two-minute film's powerful depiction of violence against women is aimed at starting the conversation around the issue and “to pay tribute to the strength and resilience of the women of Africa”.

The film in association with Leleti Khumalo, Josina Machel’s Kuhluka Movement and the Nelson Mandela Foundation was launched during a webinar on Wednesday afternoon.

“When the president made his call to speak out about gender-based violence, for me as a filmmaker it was a question of what can I do and what should I do,” said Singh. “The idea came up to use the medium of film to speak out against gender-based violence because it's such an issue, not only in our country but all across the continent and many countries across the globe.

“What we have tried to do was make it thought-provoking because when individuals, especially men, stand on the fence or don’t speak out, it really has a devastating effect as we have seen over the past years,” he said.

UN Women executive director Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who was one of the panellists at the virtual launch, said violence against women in SA was among the highest in the world.

“We are having this conversation during this month, which is supposed to celebrate women and we don’t want to take away what they need to celebrate about themselves but we also cannot forget that not only do we have the pandemic that has been brought by the virus, we have the pandemic of violence against women, which is raging not only in SA but in other countries.

“Unfortunately SA is up there as one of the countries with the most cases, but also the type of violence that women experience in SA tends to be quite gruesome. Also what is discouraging is that perpetrators tend not to face the might of the law. They are still some in society who see it as a crime of passion or a lesser crime.

“We are dealing with violent people and we are dealing with killers who prey on women,” she said. “There cannot be bystanders. We need all hands on deck for this epidemic to be defeated.”

Minister of women, youth & people with disabilities Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said Covid-19 had further trapped SA's women.

“Women are trapped by gender-based violence, poverty as a result of apartheid, femicide and now in the lockdown they are trapped even more. The lockdown was about protecting women so they would not get the virus but now they cannot run away.”

On Friday Nkoana-Mashabane visited the home of a woman who was killed by her husband, in her mother's backyard.

“Women die in their homes. Women die in the streets. Women are tired of singing and marching to magistrate's courts. We need men's organisations to lift up a hand and join us.

“To eradicate a pandemic we need a vaccine that everyone who is infected has to take, therefore all perpetrators must consume films like this, and dialogues addressing their toxic masculinities to free themselves from saying that to abuse women and children makes them men.”

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