Andile Qotoyi

Incontrovertibly, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is a cankerworm that countries in the ubiquitous corners of the globe are struggling to annihilate, South Africa notwithstanding. Although public and political discourses have been dominated by calls for increased interventions to address and mitigate their impacts, these hue-and-cry phenomena have not adequately prevented GBV; hence, there is a need for a more pragmatic analysis of the interventions. This article employed a literature review methodology, drawing on a variety of literature from journal articles, book chapters, and the authors’ personal experiences. The article established that although men are the perpetrators of GBV, women also contribute to the quagmire; Pecuniary factors drive GBV, with most cases of GBV not reported. Further, the unfathomable daily increase in the quagmire attests to the fact that South African society is not winning the battle against gender-based violence, with undocumented evidence about GBV suggesting that females do not feel safe at work, at home, and on the streets. This article recommends an infusion of Indigenous/ traditional ways of dealing with GBV, together with the policies in government. This article contributes to widening the horizon of literature to advance more research in the domain of GBV.

In the 2020-2021 epoch, South Africa faced the arduous challenge of fighting COVID-19 due to limited resources. This paper reflects how the disease affected communities in eclectic rural contexts in South Africa. This article applied a review of the literature methodology. The researchers drew their literature from journal articles, book chapters, and informal community conversations amid the researchers’ experiential intuition. The article reflects that South African rural communities faced coronavirus-driven dilemmas due to the following factors: Society being subjected to conflicting messages, a state of stigma and stigmatisation, misleading information packaging, fear associated with failure to understand the disease’s aetiology and epidemiology; and states of poverty associated with loss of several business closures and termination of employment; the phenomenon of myths and misinformation; scepticisms and conspiracies; as well as a manifestation of various forms of love deficit. This article recommends that social service professionals such as psychologists, counsellors, and social workers be on the frontline to conduct psychotherapeutic education to communities to build their resilience to fight the coronavirus. The study provides scientific data on the historical glimpse of the impact of pandemics in rural communities of South Africa. It prepares societies for other pandemics that may come in the future. Keywords: Community Dilemmas, Coronavirus, Myths, Entrepreneurial Spirit, Fear.

Unequivocally, South Africa, amid an environment of paucity of resources, faces the arduous challenge of fighting the scourge of coronavirus. This has necessitated assessing the parenting hurdles experienced during the lockdown in eclectic contexts in South Africa. This article applied a review of the literature methodology. The researchers drew their literature from journal articles, monographs, and book chapters and used informal conversations amid their intuitive and experiential powers. The article established that South African families face parenting hurdles driven by the COVID-19 lockdown due to the following factors: Children and their parents driven to a state of duress; children facing various kinds of mistreatment; pecuniary dimensions; lockdown presenting states of distress to people generally; and a surge of gender-based violence. This article recommends that social service professionals such as psychologists, counsellors, and social workers be on the frontline in discharging various psychotherapeutic education to the communities. These researchers also recommend that the government and other community development practitioners emphasize the application of the tenets of ubuntu as a conflict resolution tool to reduce conflicts and afford the children qualitative parenting. This research provides some interventions for handling parenting during any other disruptions, such as the coronavirus-imposed lockdown. Keywords: Parenting Hurdles, Lockdown, Coronavirus, Children, Ill-Treatment, Financial Factor