A black day for gender-based violence: reflections from the cricket match

I WAS invited by the HOPE Foundation on Sunday to attend the Women’s final cricket match between India and Pakistan. The theme for the day was Black Day ±GBV.

Cricket SA (CSA) was the sponsor of the event. The main aim of the day was to raise awareness around gender-based violence (GBV) which is now recognised as a pandemic in South Africa.

Following the murder of two very young girls by their dad, and the outpouring of grief by so many, I felt it was important to be part of the event to mark the day.

Everyone was asked to wear black to show their support. Let me tell you wearing black on a blazing hot summer day in Durban is hardly comfortable.

But anyway, I had made up my mind that I was all in and stuck to the theme. Within half an hour of sitting on the grounds, I was already regretting my decision to be politically correct.

Being the very diverse cosmopolitan people that we are, people pitched up in all shades of the rainbow.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning.

The Old Fort Road entrance was closed for the day. Everyone had to go in from the back entrance on the Kingsmead side.

Women and men joined separate queues to get their bags searched. Of course, the men’s side moves faster than the women’s side because as women literally carry the kitchen sink in our bags.

We have all the “what ifs” packed into a tiny space. Quite honestly, I’m not quite sure what the security lady really is looking for, as she has a little stick, pokes around and tells you to move on.

I was stopped because the umbrella I had carried in case of rain was not on the “allowed” list. Reason ? It has a metal-spiked end. So what was I do to? The security lady suggested that I give the umbrella to her. I was puzzled by her response. What does "give it to her" mean?

A second security lady then chimed in and said I could check it in and proceeded to give me a tag like the one issued at a parcel counter.

People who arrived with cooler boxes were also not allowed to take them in. No food and drink from outside was allowed.

So after lugging these heavy cooler boxes and backpacks with treats for the duration of the match, what were people going to do?

Leave it outside with a tag or take it back to your car. A key sponsor aside from Cricket SA has the monopoly on food and drink inside the stadium.

A bottle of water or cool drink would set you back at least R35. In fact, apart from the two for three samoosas, nothing else was priced under R35. A right royal rip-off, I say.

At half-time, people were invited to get on to the western corner of the pitch to sign a large banner showing their support for GBV. Now this is where my criticism for CSA comes in.

Were you really serious about advocating for GBV? They plonked a large banner on the grass and invited spectators to sign the banner.

Those of us sitting on the far opposite side were unable to get easy access to the one small gate which opened on the western side. Getting there meant walking around the ground on the outer periphery of the stadium which many, including myself, opted not to do because by the time we got there, the lunch break would have been over.

A small group of people with posters calling for a more cohesive approach to end GBV were allowed to walk with their posters on a small section on the edge of the ground.

Traditional dancers entertained the VIPs with song and dance, but again the performance was for the exclusive few. It was not even flighted on the giant screen.

My point ? Fighting the scourge of GBV has to be an inclusive exercise. CSA could have done better by placing smaller panels all around the walls of the stadium so more people could have signed the pledge.

CSA and the Bets company, which has the stadium monopoly, could have printed out information on the back of the pamphlet advertising future games, like important resources and telephone numbers.    

My personal view is this: dedicating a day for GBV was merely lip service. Hopefully, going forward, more thought will go into this kind of event. There are so many organisations which do really sterling work in the field of GBV, and their input should be sourced.

That being said, the cricket was great. Pakistan outplayed South Africa by a good margin, although South Africa won the series overall. My heart goes out to the many vendors who traipsed up and down selling ice creams and drinks. It could not have been easy going in the heat, with not too many customers, and little to no tips.

Oh and by the way, I did get my umbrella back on the way out. Hats off to the security guys who faithfully looked after the sad pile of “not allowed”.

Dr  Kalyan is a psychologist, life coach and reiki practitioner 

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media

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