Exploring the Perspectives of Women on Unreported Experiences of Gender-Based Violence in South African Homes (Relationships)

In many areas of South Africa, gender-based violence has continued to grow, and during COVID-19 lockdowns, it reached its highest heights. This study sought to differentiate between active gender-based violence and passive gender-based violence, as this distinction has always been ignored both in literature and in the South African legal system. While active gender-based violence (GBV) gets reported to the police and legally addressed, passive GBV happens in closets and cannot be reported. However, passive GBV leaves no physical scars that can be presented in court and is therefore not addressed in South African law. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposively sampled group of 10 women from Vhembe District (Venda), and thematic analysis was adopted. This study argued for women’s psychological health to be equally recognized as well as their physical health. The core argument is that depression causes as much harm as physical scars. The findings of the study revealed that GBV offenses as omissions in relationships do affect South African women in serious ways, similar to those offenses reported as commission. The findings also showed that South African law only focuses on GBV by commission; this is because GBV by omission offenses have nowhere to report and no one investigates them. Furthermore, the study found that women in South Africa suffer from being victims of mental health problems due to the fact that they live with unreportable offenses of GBV by omission. Therefore, the study contends that cases of GBV by commission in the context of spouses are usually the end result of salient GBV by omission that has been happening for a long time with no ability to report or call for intervention. This study adds to the growing literature on combating GBV in South Africa. Keywords: Gender-Based Violence, Unreported Experiences, Passive GBV, Self-Harm, Relationships.