Amend Acts or Amend Actions?

Questions abound! With newly-amended gender-based violence bills in South Africa, activists ask: will there be a significant decrease in the number of cases, will more victims report their perpetrators, and will reported cases finally be fairly prosecuted?

- By Chanel Retief

In april 2021, 23-year-old social media marketer, Aviella Frankel, reconnected with someone she considered a very close friend. She had met him years ago at the local church in her hometown in Cape Town. Because they lived in the same area and she had known him for what seemed like most of her life, she had no problem with his invitation to “come over and watch a movie”.

“It was meant to be just a friendly hangout, we were just going to spend the afternoon together as this person had mentioned he had an off day,” Frankel tells FORBES AFRICA.

On arriving at his house, Frankel recalls his roommates being present, so any inkling about anything untoward happening was the furthest from her mind.

“But when we sat down in his room and started watching this movie and his roommates were upstairs, I don’t know why, but I kind of had a feeling of something seeming a bit off; I couldn’t figure out why something seemed a bit dark...

“He ended up raping me for two hours that afternoon.”

The alleged perpetrator was arrested the following day but only for a week.

The trauma of it all continues to follow Frankel as they live in the same area, and she frequently sees him around the neighborhood.

Although her case is currently being investigated, unfortunately, Frankel is but one statistic in a long register of similar cases of gender-based violence (GBV).