GBV needs new solutions

It would seem that the period of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children unleashes the worst in gender-based violence (GBV) cases in South Africa every festive season.

- Sydney Majoko

This time around, the most high-profile cases in the country emanated from KwaZulu-Natal. The recent incident that shocked the nation was of a teacher, Sbusiso Lawrence Ntaka, who posted a video on social media confessing to the murder of his 25-year-old girlfriend Nontobeko Cele. The culprit later hanged himself.

While the country was still reeling from the callousness of Cele's murder and confession of her ex-boyfriend with her blood literally dripping from his face, another young man murdered his girlfriend, Bongeka Makhatini, 21, and their three-year-old toddler.

As in the first incident, the culprit took his own life too.

With each fresh incident of intimate-partner violence that ends up as a national headline, especially so soon after the 16 Days of Activism, it seems the country becomes gripped in the frenzy of wanting to know the details. Then is shocked by the senselessness of it all, but still descends into the obligatory men versus women debate, especially on social media.