Victims and survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) from Limpopo and North West made the highest number of calls to the TEARS Foundation’s Help-at-your-fingertips helpline, which provides critical support to GBV victims across the country, between 2020 and 2023.
Contrary to what many might expect, the helpline received the most calls not only during the peak of the Covid pandemic – when lockdowns forced victims and perpetrators to stay under the same roof – but also in the period following the lockdowns.
That’s according to a new research study conducted by the TEARS Foundation in partnership with the University of Johannesburg (UJ), released on Tuesday, which analysed data from the Help-at-your-fingertips helpline to provide detailed statistics on the locations and profiles of GBV incidents across the country.
The TEARS Foundation launched the helpline 10 years ago to support victims who had difficulty problems getting help from police.
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The study, based on anonymous calls made by GBV victims between January 2020 and December 2023, focuses on various aspects such as time series analysis, call locations, the frequency of calls from the same numbers, and the prevalence of calls during specific periods like school or public holidays.
High call rates in Limpopo and North West
According to the study, Limpopo tops the list with the highest call rate at 104 calls per 100 000 people, totaling 6 804 calls over the four-year period. North West follows closely with 103 calls per 100 000 people, amounting to 3 934 calls.
Corné Davis, a professor in the Faculty of Humanities at UJ, told City Press that the data revealed higher rates of GBV incidents in Limpopo and North West, stressing the need for targeted interventions by both government and society at large to offer support to victims.
“There is a higher prevalence in those provinces and there could be a number of reasons [for this]. That is why the second [phase of our research] is so important that we can clarify that,” Davis explained.
She added that the current research does not include victim profiles – such as age, race, gender and type of abuse – due to the anonymous nature of the calls, but this will be addressed in the second phase of the study.
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Free State, Mpumalanga and Gauteng round out the top five provinces with call rates of 99, 97 and 93 per 100 000 people, translating to 2 920, 4 701 and 14 072 calls, respectively.
The differences in call numbers are due to both the rate of GBV incidents and the population size of each province. Limpopo’s high call rate of 104 per 100 000 people shows a high number of GBV cases relative to its population.
Gauteng, despite having the lowest call rate among the top five at 93 per 100 000 people, has the highest total number of calls because of its larger population.
Davis said Limpopo and North West’s high call volumes could partly be due to the socioeconomic challenges in these provinces, including high unemployment and poverty rates.
She said:
In most cases, as we know, victims are financially dependent on perpetrators. So, if you look at the socioeconomic position of people in those areas, it is likely that you will have higher inequality and less accessibility to resources.
Post-lockdown rise in calls
The report shows that the average number of calls per month during the 2020-2023 period was 1 104.
For 2020, the monthly average was 1 293, which decreased to 804 in 2021, then rose to 1 153 in 2022, and slightly increased to 1 167 in 2023.
Davis said that these figures were intriguing, as they revealed that while the average monthly calls in 2020 were high, most GBV calls came in only after lockdowns were lifted.
She stated:
If you look at during the Covid period, you would actually see that the highest calls came from the lowest lockdown levels. We would have expected to receive more calls during the total [hard] lockdowns. It was very interesting to see those call patterns, which was contrary to what we had imagined it would be.
Alcohol’s role in GBV incidents
The findings include that the largest number of calls were received on Sundays (8 541) followed by Tuesdays (8 524) and Mondays (8 332).
Davis believes that alcohol may have played a major role in the timing of GBV calls, with many victims reaching out to the helpline on Mondays and Tuesdays after experiencing abuse.
She said that these days might be especially notable because victims often call for help following incidents that occurred over the weekend.
She said:
Often in many cases, alcohol is the contributing factor, and it is true that people consume more over the weekends. We see that the calls are persistent, and they just spike on those days, and that is obviously the time when victims are able to call when, maybe, on Mondays they are at work because they can’t call from home.
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“We can only speculate until we have done the second phase of the research, but the facts are, those are the times that people call. The calls are 100% anonymous [currently] and no details will ever be disclosed.
“But for those who select the option of being called back by a consultant, then there is a profile created where you can identify gender, race, socioeconomic status, employment status, including the kind of abuse the caller is calling about and that kind of information we can identify all that in the next phase of the research,” Davis added.
The most active period for calls was between 7pm and 10pm, while most emergency calls were received between 1pm and 4pm.
“The night calls would be actual emergencies, where they are physically in danger. During the day, it would be after the fact, typically when the perpetrator would be at work. If it’s an emergency, they need hospital services or medical help immediately,” Davis explained.
“That would typically account for the high call volumes we see at night, while the daytime calls show that they need support afterwards.”
In numbers:
– The helpline recorded almost 14 000 calls per year.
– Over the past four years, the helpline received a total of 53 004 calls.
– The average number of calls received per day during the survey period was 36.
– Most call peaks were attributed to TEARS media initiatives and campaigns.
– In the 2020/2021 period:
November had the highest total number of calls, with 9 078.
December followed with 8 325 calls.
– Most calls were received at noon.
– The findings are based on the 53 004 calls received over the four-year period.
The TEARS Foundation’s Help-at-your-fingertips helpline for GBV victims is a USSD service (*134*7355#) that sends information via a mobile phone, using simple prompt-based technology.
Thapelo Lekabe
www.news24.com
