Why is this a “giant”?
Violence remains one of the key challenges to our new democracy because it threatens the dignity, safety, security, and advancement of individuals and communities. Violence also contributes to a culture of distrust, hostility, fear, and retribution.

What are the realities?
CRIMINAL VIOLENCE: Conservatively, there were 652,480 incidents of violent crime in South Africa in 2001, including the highest reported murder and rape statistics internationally. Newspapers are filled with daily accounts of gruesome murders and violent assaults, each of which affects our national psyche.

GENDER VIOLENCE: South African women and girls of all races face unconscionable levels of sexual assault and sexual harassment. Conservative estimates of all sexual assaults, including those that go unreported, are as high as 1,079,520 for 2001.

ECONOMIC VIOLENCE: The level of abject poverty facing 22 million of our citizens leaves the majority of our population without the basic food and water to survive. This poverty is a crime against our own people and contributes to extraordinary human rights abuses.

POLITICAL AND RACIAL VIOLENCE: Political violence, though dramatically below apartheid levels, continues to plague our communities. In areas such as KwaZulu-Natal, gangs motivated by political allegiances are still engaged in factional warfare that is tearing families and towns apart. Xenophobia increasingly is fostering high levels of violence against immigrants and refugees.

What does this mean?
This culture of violence stems from the history of our violent past as well as the growing uncertainty of our nation’s future. Individuals turn to violence as an answer for their problems, tensions, and conflicts. Communities are also using violence as a means of asserting their security in an insecure environment or asserting their dominance over weaker groups and peoples. Increased incarceration may not lessen the culture of violence and has in some instances extended or deepened this culture.

What is being done?
NGOs have established Trauma Clinics, Youth Violence Prevention Programmes, and Victim Empowerment Programmes. The Human Rights Commission has launched the Inquiry into Human Rights Violations in Farming Communities to examine and address political and racial violence on farms and in rural areas. The government though the various sections of the criminal justice system encourages victim support programmes, special courts and programmes for rehabilitation of prisoners.

What is our responsibility?
What are we as Church leaders to do in the face of this “giant” that grips our congregations and communities? First, what awareness programs, support groups, and outreach initiatives can we launch to deal with the impact of the violence? Second, what concrete steps can we take to dismantle the culture of violence and to foster ethics of non-violence and reconciliation?