Domestic Violence in Post-Apartheid South Africa: The Experiences and Challenges

Abstract

In the post-apartheid era, domestic violence remains one of the major social problems facing South Africa as it affects the victim, perpetrators, the family, and community at large. Though there have been various attempts to determine the prevalence of domestic violence and sexual assault in South Africa, available statistics reflect only a small portion of cases. Most people think that the traditions and rules of African cultures can better explain domestic violence.Some see this connection as a direct one, arguing that wife battering is regarded as normal within the traditional African culture. Since the turn of the millennium and the adoption of the just ended Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), women and girls have been discussed on global platforms. The failure to attain the MDGs resulted in the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) tells all governments around the world to make sure that men and women have the same rights and that all women and girls have the same rights.This is in light of the vulnerability which women and girls find themselves in. Women and girls in most communities find themselves without a voice and their rights are undermined due to socially constructed roles and attributes that undermine them. This paper explores the hypothesis that social and cultural values and beliefs are antithetical to women’s development and wellbeing and thus cause domestic violence. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was used to analyse and discuss secondary data collected.