Siya Jentile-Founder and President of Not In My Name, activist and public speaker

thought in the light of the current protests and public anger around the recurring issue of gender-based violence I would revisit an interview I published last year with Siya Jentile.  He is the founder and president of Not in My name, an NGO aimed at mobilising society, and men in particular, against gender-based violence.

In looking for some information to share with you about the scale and scope of the problem we face regarding this national catastrophe I was shocked at the dearth of up to date national statistics on the rape assault and murder of women in South Africa. One I found is that a woman is killed every three hours in this country. According to The World Health Organization (WHO), 12.1 in every 100 000 women are victims of femicide in South Africa each year – a figure which is five times worse than the global average of 2.6.

Another depressing figure I came across is that there were at least 55 rape complaints against police officers were investigated in the six months between April to September 2018, according to the 2018/19 annual report of the police watchdog, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID).

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Find out more about Sonke Gender Justice, POWA or contact Siya.