INTC Podcast: An Open Discussion About Femicide In South Africa Featuring Hlulani Baloyi and Hlumelo Marepula
Here in the states, we know a thing or two about femicide. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence:
- 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men experience severe intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner contact sexual violence, and/or intimate partner stalking with impacts such as injury, fearfulness, post-traumatic stress disorder, use of victim services, contraction of sexually transmitted diseases, etc.
- 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men in the United States has been raped in their lifetime.
- 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner. This includes a range of behaviors (e.g. slapping, shoving, pushing) and in some cases might not be considered “domestic violence.”
- 1 in 7 women and 1 in 25 men have been injured by an intimate partner.
- 1 in 10 women have been raped by an intimate partner. Data is unavailable on male victims.
Believe it or not, the statistics on rape and murder against women in South Africa are alarmingly high. According to Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa, As many as 51% of women in South Africa had experienced violence at the hands of someone they were in a relationship.
Some interesting information about South Africa according to AfricaCheck.org:
- South Africa is known as the rape capital of the world.
- The police recorded 41,583 rapes in 2018/19, up from 40,035 rapes in 2017/18. This means an average of 114 rapes were recorded by the police each day.
- The rape rate increased from 70.5 in 2017/18 to 72.1 in 2018/19.
This episode I chat it up with Hlulani Baloyi and Hlumelo Marepula to discuss femicide and gender-based violence in both the US and SA.
About Hlulani
Hlulani is a South African born Fullstack developer. Shortly after joining Geekulcha, Hlulani Baloyi realized there’s a gap between males and females in the ICT sector. She started doing research and came across Girl Rising. She is now the ambassador for this global initiative and helps teach women how to code and helps tackle the gender gap. Under the umbrella of coding and empowering women, Hlulani is a chairperson of Black girls code Johannesburg chapter, a global initiative to increase the number of women of color in the digital space by empowering girls of color ages 7 to 17 to become innovators in STEM fields, leaders in their communities, and builders of their own futures through exposure to computer science and technology.
Some of her recent accolades include:
- In 2018, Hlulani was named as SADC Top 100 of 2018: Trailblazer
- GeekyReality featured her on their #STEMStories in 2018
- Hlulani was also named part of Women Changing SA feature with the Mail & Guardian 2019
You can keep up with her via her website, iamhlulani.com. Follow her on Twitter, @hlullyr. Catch her on Instagram, I_am_hlulani. Find her on Facebook, Hlulani Baloyi.
About Hlumelo
Hlumelo is an MSC Civil Engineering Masters candidate from the University of Cape Town, specializing in Water Quality Engineering. Passionate about social justice and change, Hlumelo is involved with the UCT Global Citizenship Programme. This led to her taking on a lecturing role on a humanities elective for engineers, making her the first undergraduate student to fulfill such a role in the engineering department. The course explores the impact of the engineering profession on communities and how engineers can contribute to a socially just society.
