Abstract:
Since the call of lockdown in South Africa due to Coronavirus, the fight has not only been against Covid-19 but also against Gender-Based Violence (GBV). The rapid increase in GBV cases during lockdown has sparked tremendous outrage across South African societies and communities at large. Brutal violence and acts by men towards women left the nation asking what is it that is perpetuating the cruel behavior by men towards their female counterparts. The nature of GBV tends to cut across different races, genders, and sexual orientations with common causes and impact on victims. Therefore, to better understand this GBV from a Holistic approach, the paper adopts an intersectional approach, which offers the study of various societal factors and intersecting identities to understand issues. The intersectional approach shows the interconnectedness of different factors and categories in society, and they should therefore not be studied differently. Henceforth, this study utilizes this intersectional feminist framework to understand the intersecting forms of privilege and oppression that fuel domestic violence under the COVID-19 lockdown. A desktop qualitative research methodology was utilized to collect and analyze available data, and it has been found that there is a strong link between the imposed lockdown in South Africa due to COVID-19 and the rapid rise of GBV cases. This study concludes and recommends that to respond to GBV in times of crisis, public and private institutions need to foster a holistic approach that acknowledges that the gender axis does not operate alone but interacts with other identity axes. In such a way, policies and programming can be tailored to suit varying groups of disadvantaged sections of society.

Keywords:
Covid-19 pandemic, Domestic violence, Gender-Based Violence, Feminist Framework, and Intersectionality.