On the bench

Rock Girl benches are taking our spaces back

When a group of grade five girls from a school in Manenberg confided in human rights lawyer, India Baird, that they didn’t feel safe at school, she decided to create a safe space for them, by installing a bench next to the tuck shop. India, with Karina Turok, is at the helm of a project called Rock Girl: an organization which highlights challenges faced by women.

Their first campaign, the Safe Spaces Initiative, is a grassroots public art and education drive to raise awareness about the need to create safe places for girls and women in schools, at work and in communities. The idea of “eyes on the street”, in the form of benches in prominent places, will make cases of assault more visible in communities.

“Each bench will be linked to a toll free number, which connects women to opportunities, resources and support, as well as inspiring stories of 75 successful, South African women, from Life and Soul: Portraits of Women Who Move South Africa, compiled by Karina Turok and Margie Orford,” says India.

The first bench, designed by Tim Lewis, with mosaic by Lovell Friedman, was showcased to great acclaim, at Cape Town’s Design Indaba, in February 2011, and there are two benches at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Rock Girl has invited 35 artists to submit their designs and hope to install 10 benches by Women’s Day, on 9th August, 2011.

“We want to install benches in urban areas where there is heavier traffic including the CBD, Fan Walk and St George’s Mall, as well as at Cape Town train station, where women from a wide range of backgrounds catch the train. Sister benches, designed by women from disadvantaged communities, will be installed in communities, such as Khayelitsha.”

“Women don’t feel safe”

“Violence against women in the Cape Flats occurs at home, in communities, and even in the toilets outside of their homes,” India explains, “With the threat of violence in close proximity to where they live and work, women don’t feel safe walking home from school or work.”

Abuse in South Africa is exacerbated by widespread poverty, migration, and social and economic insecurity. In some communities, it's a cultural norm for husbands to discipline their wives - a prerogative earned through marriage (Hargreaves et al, 2006). A study conducted in 2004, by Mathews, Abrahams, Martin, Vetten, Van der Merwe and Jewkes, found that four women every day are killed by an intimate partner in South Africa.

“One of the biggest challenges is getting women to report cases. They feel afraid and threatened, or don’t know where to go. Often, women are dependent on the perpetrator,” says India.

In what UNICEF calls the conspiracy of silence, South African women are discouraged by everyone around them (including other women) from reporting violence. Those who do report get a cold response from the criminal justice system; police tell women it’s a private matter, cases are poorly investigated and files are lost. Of all rape cases reported to the South African Police Service (SAPS), between 2001 and 2007, only 7.7% resulted in a successful prosecution.

This has to stop

“At no time in my lifetime have we seen such brutality against women. It is a national crisis,” says co-founder, Karina Turock.

The last ten years has seen much progress for infrastructure in our courts, police, social services and local care centres, trained in how to deal with rape, include Thuthuleza (Xhosa for ‘comfort’) and Saartjie Baartmen Centre for Women and Children (SBCWC).

“Rock Girl networks over 300 organisations for violence against women, local schools and rotary clubs,” explains India, “We hope to bolster the great efforts by NGOs and the government, but also welcome volunteers from all backgrounds.”

Cape Town Partnership, Waterfront Foundation and the Granddaddy Hotel, are among the organisations involved. Rock Girl is currently seeking more sponsors. For more information, contact India Baird +27 (0)82 734 4569, or Karina Turok +27 (0)82 335 4088.

By Lisa Nevitt

Cape Town Partnership have included Rock Girl in their World Design Capital 2014 bid.

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