Solidarity through the purple shirts.

It was one late afternoon in 2008 and I was driving home from downtown after attending a protest outside the Johannesburg high court. I accompanied activists and feminist warriors in showing solidarity and creating awareness of a rape case when the victim had not received justice. That day the court announced that the case was back on the roll after many months of back and forth and discovering that one of the accusers, who was out on bail, had raped another person. It was a tough and long day. En route home, I stopped at a main intersection. A young man selling items started shouting and asking- “Eish, my sister, what have we done now?”. I opened my window to try and understand what he meant. He pointed to the purple One in Nine T-shirt that I was wearing and said, “We know when we see you wearing this shirt, a woman or child has been abused”.

He was right and as much as it represented that, I acknowledged that the purple shirts with the thought-provoking, powerful narrative speak to solidarity, activism, and support and carry a lot of power and weight.

Fast forward almost 16 years later, that sentiment remains with the members and partners of the One in Nine campaign.

What is the One in Nine campaign?

The One in Nine Campaign is a South African organisation motivated by feminist principles and the desire to live in a society where womxn are the agents of their own lives.

It was created in 2006 to support Fezeka Kuzwayo, known as Khwezi to the media, who brought a rape charge against then vice-president Jacob Zuma. After she spoke out against her ordeal, she was execrated, shamed and victimised by a society that is used to perpetuating rape culture. This added abuse emerged from spaces that were meant to give her support, yet they joined in the public humiliation of victim-blaming accusations and intimidation.

The campaign supported her to highlight the failures of the criminal justice system in dealing with and responding adequately to survivors of sexual violence in South Africa. The campaign was set out to address the secondary victimisation that survivors face when they speak out against and seek justice from state officials whose job and duty is to protect and serve them.

Over the years the campaign has worked towards feminist movement building, strengthening advocacy around violence against womxn, amplifying the voices and agency of womxn on gender-based violence and femicide as well as collectively working with other organizations in pushing for accountability and leadership from the government.

The campaign works at building feminist knowledge by working with womxn in communities and community-based organisations and developing media to advocate against gender-based violence and structural violence.

Today the organisation is led by six fierce and dedicated womxn ( five are part of the LGBTQIA+ community) who understand the political and grassroots landscape. They are on a mission to make it a better and safer place to live in.

The campaign primarily works in five areas.

Solidarity in Action and building feminist activism
Feminist knowledge production and Research
Media advocacy
Justice and legal transformation
Direct action.

THE ONE IN NINE CAMPAIGN WILL ALWAYS BE GUIDED BY THESE PRINCIPLES:

• We always believe survivors and this informs all the steps we take in handling our cases.

• Our interventions on individual cases are survivor-led and informed by our legal frameworks to give support that will not bring harm to the survivor.

• Survivors are part of all decisions and are kept informed of all steps that we take as the Campaign on dealing with their cases.

• We will not nor will we ever disclose information into the media that reveals the identities of survivors or details about the case that could be prejudicial to the case and result in harm to the survivor.

• With One in Nine being an advocacy Campaign, we also make sure that the survivor has access to counselling services, legal advice and medical examinations from our referral networks.

The Campaign supports survivors of sexual violence – those who report the crimes to the police and choose to engage the criminal justice system and those who choose not to or are unable to report their rapes. Among other things, they apply pressure on various branches of the criminal justice system through direct action and targeted advocacy to ensure that officials comply with existing laws and policies. The team works with individuals, communities, collectives, and organisations to generate feminist analyses of social problems. They target the South African government for its failure to protect the rights of women and queer bodies and force it to its full mandates and responsibilities and they develop innovative strategies for mobilization and mass action.

The now.

South Africa is still in a crisis regarding GBV and femicide. Patriarchal ideologies continue to dominate all aspects of society, from home to school, religious places and workplaces, these attitude is driven within the criminal justice system, which is meant to protect us. The youth unemployment rate is high, this is concerning as the age group is 15 to 34 which is almost half of the county’s employable population. Violence, poverty and unemployment have created a society of young womxn who turn to substance abuse and alcohol and feel that they have no choice but to stay in abusive relationships.

Understanding that abuse is about power, if the dominant partner in the household has the economic power they sometimes believe they have the right to execute any form of abuse, as society has termed it normal through our highly publicised rape culture and norms. Teenagers fall prey to older predators who use their vulnerability to offer them a better life, which ultimately leads to statutory rape, teenage pregnancy and diseases such as STI and HIV.

When we talk about GBV we cannot exclude the reality that the LGBTQI community face multiple levels of abuse, such as verbal, hate crimes, bullying and transphobia. The high rate of hate crimes and rapes goes unreported against queer people of colour.

Although we have democracy on paper, South African townships are struggling to access basic services such as water, electricity, housing, and food, these all affect young womxn, girls and the LGBTQI communities.

Over the past 16 years, the One in Nine campaign has created many avenues in programming towards ending Gender-based Violence. They have changed the attitudes of how communities support victims and survivors of sexual abuse, thus smashing misogynistic ideologies. Their actions have resulted in communities and other women supporting and standing by victims who speak out, this has led to survivors taking the lead in how they want their stories to be told and engaging in the criminal justice system if they want to.

As much as there is a lot of hot air and movement on a government level that engages with a selective group of organisations, there is limited assistance to womxn in grassroots communities. The language used in the political and governmental spaces does not resonate with such communities and the One in Nine campaign has been actively working with these communities through training and simplifying the language used by adapting it to their lived realities.

The outcome of such projects.

The women the team have worked with have changed their perspective of what feminism is and how it relates to the lived realities of black womxn. Over the past three years, the team have focused on community groups in The Vaal region. The programs work towards strengthening their response work on Gender-based Violence and other issues affecting womxn in the area. The team have worked with these groups to help them secure funding, assisting them with their organisational development and reach within their communities. When I understand women’s empowerment, it is this model that speaks volumes. This approach has also created additional support and strong relationships creating solidarity for each other’s work. The long-term goal is to create and solidify a feminist network that will continue beyond the One in Nine campaign intervention within the Vaal community.

Sakha Umphakathi Campaign-

One in Nine campaign initiated this through their feminist political programme. It is a partnership with Lebo Basadi from Evaton, Serapeng sa Basadi, Mountain Chillas and Hills of Peace from Waterdal; SMK success Mpumelelo Katleho from Tshepong; We strive to live from Orange Farm.

The focus area is in three parts.

The Killing of womxn and Children.
The killing of the LGBTQIA+ community.
The killing and abuse of elderly womxn.

The goals and objectives.

The campaign is led by the womxn of the community.
Raise awareness around these three areas of violence in the respective communities.
Raise consciousness amongst the community by bringing dialogues and creating space for conversations. This is done so the community can come together, discuss the challenges and find solutions that best suit the members and people of that particular community. They can find solutions to ending violence within those communities.
Mobilise and organise womxn of all ages in the communities in an intersectional approach to end violence against women, children and the LGBTQIA+ community. Creating space for everyone in the community to take responsibility for bringing about the change within their immediate spaces.
The end process is awareness and consciousness-raising, educating and mobilising to come up with solutions that are community centred.

Under this umbrella, satellite campaigns such as the Sakha Umphakathi Reaha Setjhaba campaign, aimed at understanding our elders and ending violence against them, through the slogan-; Let us stop killing our grandmothers.

The shared sentiments of the myths and misconceptions of older black womxn. For example, it is the known narrative that older black womxn who live alone are witches, healers and dark in complexion. These beliefs have initiated Eldercide, which is violence and killing of older black womxn. There are reports that if an elderly black womxn are seen wandering around, disoriented they have been stoned to death as they are confused and cannot explain where they are going. These actions speak to the reality that society believed that womxn’s bodies are constantly policed. Jostinah Sangweni was killed and burned alive in Mapetla, Soweto. May her dear soul rest in peace.

The educational workshops also focus on teaching and understanding mental illness among the elderly. The community are taught what to look out for, and how to help and give assistance.

Monitoring and evaluation.

At the beginning of every project, the team develop a concise project work plan for all staff so everybody understands the plan and implementation. This plan falls in line with donor funding and it is monitored through regular meetings. Regular meetings are had with the organisation’s leader to ensure the projects are implemented correctly and fall in line with the organisational structure and culture, and that it meets the needs of the concerned community.

An in-depth evaluation is done after completion to measure the impact of the project, what their challenges were and what should be included in the next project, also how the community benefitted from the project. Most of the campaign methods rely on qualitative research- including focus groups with the project’s beneficiaries, self-assessments and feedback from the beneficiaries.

The Amp studio

Through the amp studios, a team of skilled artisans design and develop concepts for advocacy media for the Campaign. They also create artwork and designs for other NGOs.