A VIEW OF THE WEEK: With a GBV response like this, who needs enemies

When top cops can be so brazen and ethically bankrupt, what hopes do we have of fixing the GBV pandemic? President Cyril Ramaphosa interrupted our dinner this week to speak for what felt like the 100th time on “the war against women and girls”, but by the time he left, the nation was still as tired and desperate as when he began. Task teams were in his speech, but so were audits. Audits for everything from backlogs and unresolved murders to the total number of street lights that are off in a particular area. Departments and local governments must complete the audits within 60 days and address them within 90. An Inter-Ministerial Committee on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide and the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide will issue stats on these every quarter to make sure everything is transparent and accountable. The idea is that those who are supposed to be watching over our women and children are aware of who they are, where they are, and what is a danger to them. The solutions are theoretically correct but practically laughable. Correct, because this is the standard we expect from government, especially in accountability and service delivery, but a bit baffling because, once again, Ramaphosa has wrapped up a service we thought we were always entitled to as a “solution”. Maybe it is his businessman streak coming through, but this is the political equivalent of selling you his pen and then still expecting you to buy the ink to use it. Except in this case, he will throw in the ink for free as a “gift” after you kick up a fuss. In politics, as it has been for so long in predatory business, it seems it’s about what is in (and not in) the Ts & Cs. Services like cut grass, safe buildings and roads, and working street lights are what we expect when we mark our X on an election ballot, not a nicety to be given us later. But, sadly, even this has now become practically laughable. Giving already failing municipalities and ministries audit paperwork, sadly, only speeds up the process of decay. Time spent on administrative exercises is time taken from service delivery or meaningful change that would naturally bring these problems down. Here again, Ramaphosa is giving us the political equivalent of writing a 100-page corporate report about how to turn on a light, without someone just flicking on the switch. Top cop an alleged GBV offender His fighting words against gender-based violence (GBV), delivered either in deep fatigue or fake sadness, were sadly undermined just hours earlier by one of the most senior law enforcement officers in the country: suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya. Police are on the frontline in the fight against GBV, but dedicated desks at stations stand empty, officers laugh off complaints, dockets are discarded without a second thought, and rape kits are too often missing. And near the pinnacle of this police force is a man who himself stands accused of being an offender. Arrested at an alleged strip club and facing charges of alleged sexual grooming, human trafficking, and rape involving teenagers, Sibiya’s excuses this week were deeply concerning. He explained sex with a woman 41 years younger than him as consensual and that she wanted to see him again, but it “did not happen”. He also claimed that a 16-year-old had a crush on him, and he happened to have an explicit video of her on his phone because he was helping her father, who had stumbled upon it. A court will decide whether these explanations are reasonable, but it is common sense that no one, especially a high-profile law enforcement officer tasked with stamping out GBV, should even find themselves near such circumstances. It is no wonder that Ramaphosa has labelled the never-ending battle with GBV as a “national shame” when those who lead the nation are themselves shameful.