In South Africa, as in other countries throughout the world, patriarchal systems exist in which men hold most or all of the power and control. Women in South Africa continue to experience gender discrimination. This manifests as practices that limit women’s access to land, property, and housing, economic opportunities, and making them victims of gender based violence which encompasses not only intimate partner violence and domestic violence, but also the “corrective rape” of lesbians and violence against sex workers.
Public interest legal service providers in South Africa work to address the alarming rates of gender-based violence in South Africa, and to ensure judgments that reinforce gender rights, and that those judgments are implemented.