Bishop Sithembele Sipuka A bishop in South Africa has highlighted the need to identify the root cause of violence against women in order to overcome the societal challenge facing the country.
Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha, president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, was speaking last week about the alarming rates of gender-based killings targeting women and girls in the country.
“In my view we need to get to the root cause of femicide so that we know what we are addressing,” he said.
“There are a lot of speculations about [femicide], but I wish somebody could do a true analytic study on it.”
South Africa has experienced considerably higher levels of femicide in recent times, with the 2017/18 statistics by Africa Check showing every three hours, a woman is murdered in the country.
Problems
According to Bishop Sipuka, whatever the reasons for the violence against women, it is wrong and it is not the way to solve problems. “Culturally, men are meant to protect rather than to victimise,” he said.
“From the Christian point of view, men should take the model of St Joseph who protected the vulnerable members of his family and provided for them.”
As a way forward, Bishop Sipuka said the South African Council of Churches are planning to hold a gathering to speak against violence targeting women.
He also noted that a collective effort from the various Christian denominations is needed to win this fight. “If the Catholic Church as the minority in South Africa stands alone, we will not succeed. We will collaborate with other Churches and see what we can do together to mobilise men and to speak to them.”