Twitter gives women a fighting chance

-

TWITTER activism in the form of hashtag campaigns has gained momentum in giving a voice to women fighting gender-based violence (GBV).

In South Africa, the phenomenon began in 2017 with the #MenAreTrash campaign sparked by the murder of 22-year-old Karabo Mokwena by her boyfriend, Sandile Mantsoe.

That campaign gave rise to more campaigns such as #MeToo , #NameYourRapist and #AmINext.

On July 19, South African twitter woke up to yet another movement against GBV: the #SueUsAll campaign, a response to DJ Fresh’s court order stopping Ntsiki Mazwai from levelling rape allegations against him on social media.

The emergence of #SueUsAll is as alarming as it is confusing.

Mazwai, the one the court order was sought against, is not the victim.

Rather, she is a third party, who through the #NameYourRapist campaign of 2019 is spreading allegations of rape on behalf of Penny Lebyane, DJ Fresh’s ex-girlfriend.

More than a pursuit of the golden rule of law that one is innocent until proven guilty, the court order was interpreted as a stunt by DJ Fresh to silence Ntsiki over the rape allegations.

The claim, however, does not come out of a vacuum. South Africa is not short of instances where the famous and mighty are alleged to use the courts to silence their victims.

As one women tweeted: “Rapists must stop silencing women using the law. These monsters must be exposed!”

One classic case inferred as such is the Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo (Khwezi) case, in which the courts are suspected to have ruled in favour of former president Jacob Zuma, thereby silencing the victim.

In a society where GBV is rampant and the courts are suspected to side with the wealthy and famous, protests like #SueUsAll are inevitable.

Like many of its predecessors, it stirred the hornet’s nest, attracting counter-arguments from men who took to twitter questioning its prudence: “Feminazis want to destroy the lives of innocent men without any consequences. Nowadays when it comes to issues of sexual assault men are always guilty, evidence doesn’t matter anymore, with one tweet you can lose everything. If you’re falsely accused, fight back, sue them!”

“Black feminism has just turned into a circus. They go around making all manners of accusations against their black men, but when the accused dares to clear their names they go around acting like victims. Black people are indeed their worst enemies.”

Men complained that the campaign was anchored in toxic feminism premised on bitterness and emotions rather than logic. Their rationale was that DJ Fresh is innocent until proven guilty and he reserves the right to seek protection from defamation.

How then could women try to prosecute him in the court of public opinion that is twitter? To men, #SueUsAll is a high-sounding nothing that impedes necessary judicial procedures.

While the campaign strikes one as an irrational protest driven by emotions, it must be understood that it’s a cry for justice for women as a collective. Our women are not irrational.

To see them as such is to miss the wood for the trees. Our women are victims of society and their anger is a product of circumstances.

That women are bitter and react emotionally to GBV does not make their concern any less legitimate.

Dismissing their bitterness and anger without looking into what caused them to act in that manner does not do our society any good.


• NKOSIYAZI KAN KANJIRI Kanjiri is a University of Fort Hare social work graduate. He writes in his own capacity.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Party interests have sabotaged the larger Zimbabwean dream

-
Image
Zimbabwe has become a polarised nation with the ordinary citizen bearing the brunt of elitist politics. Zanu PF, the ruling party since 1980, claims that it won the 2018 election. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the main opposition since 1999, also claims that it won the same election. The outcome of the election was highly contested. For the first time in the history of Zimbabwe, the matter was taken to the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) and was broadcasted live on ZBC TV, the nation’s sole broadcaster.  This was a departure from the Mugabe years where elections were contested, and nothing would be done. The 2008 election between Mugabe and Tsvangirai is a case in point. The matter was put before the court but judgement was never delivered. .  The historical ConCourt hearing with a panel of nine judges, which Zimbabweans and the world followed religiously, could not save Zimbabwe from the looming political standoff. If anything, it rubberstamped it. Zanu Pf came ou...
Read more

Gender-based violence in the epoch of Covid-19: South Africa’s shadow pandemic

-
Image
“Over the past few weeks, no fewer than 21 women and children have been murdered”. ON JUNE 17 the president appeared on our screens from the Union Buildings as usual. We were all waiting to hear what he would say. Since the national lockdown started on March 26, President Cyril Ramaphosa has been a regular on our screens, updating the nation on the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike many of his Covid-19 speeches, the June 17 one was different. “Fellow South Africans”, his catchphrase, was missing. I was one of the millions glued to the screen to listen to the president. Twenty-two minutes into his speech, I saw his face cringe. This was unlike him. I had, since the lockdown, seen the president as a concerned yet resolute man. I had seen him carry the burden of Covid-19 on his shoulders, yet when speaking, he would speak hope to the nation. But on June 17 I saw him flinch. How can a man remain resolute when he has two pandemics to talk about in one speech? The pre...
Read more

The MDC, alternative or substitute?

-
Image
 "Yes there are legal issues which have been problematic but ultimately we must always be mindful that politics is not about legality. Politics is about the people." Prof Welshman Ncube MDC A Vice Presiden t The generality of Zimbabwean’s has, in the past two weeks been drawn to the MDC Supreme Court ruling like mosquitos to a lantern. In what the main opposition laments as the weaponisation of the law, the powers that be stirred the hornet’s nest throwing Zimbabweans into a pandemonium. The timing of the ruling was suspicious. Delivered in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic lockdown, it sent tongues wagging. The verdict generated a brawled debate across the political divide, this time, not between ZANU PF and MDC but within the MDC. Social media has since been buzzing, awash with debates of polarity between the MDC families. Some have been healthy. Some have been toxic bordering on bigotry and name calling. It is messy. The MDC dogfight has gained the audience of...
Read more