By BAKANG MOKOTO
31 August 2025- The South African Union Council of Independent Churches (SAUCIC) on Saturday said that most families are trapped in Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) intergenerational trauma. The Union Council representing affiliated Federations of Charismatic, Evangelical Outreach Mission Ministries and Pentecostal Churches expressed concern that victims and perpetrators of GBVF are getting younger.
SAUCIC cited the recent brutal murder of 20-year-old Likhona Ntandoyenkosi Maphanga from Phola Park, Thokoza, Gauteng, allegedly killed by her ex-boyfriend, Zakhele Sibisi. SAUCIC said it also mentioned Friday afternoon’s killing of first year University of Venda (UNIVEN) student also aged 20 allegedly stabbed multiple times by her boyfriend at an accredited off-campus student residence in Ngovhela village, near Thohoyandou in Limpopo.
SAUCIC President Cardinal Archbishop Dr Modiri Patrick Shole said the 20-year-old boyfriend who is a second-year student at the university is reportedly in hospital under police guard after attempting suicide by jumping from the second-floor window after the heinous attack. Shole condemned both incidents highlighting that children who witness violence either internalize the trauma or replicate the behaviour.
“They lose their self-esteem, learn to normalize violence and also think of it as an accepted way to solve disagreements. Children raised in abusive environments adopt unhealthy coping mechanisms such as drug and substance abuse resulting in a cycle of abuse.
“A culture of silence perpetuates vicious cycles across generations. Interventions must primarily focus on restoring the family as the first socialising unit,” he emphasised.
Shole decried that every incident of gender-based violence has far reaching implication and societal impact than previously thought.
“The seed of GBVF is sowed in individual abusive homes. Healing and restoration interventions targeted at secondary victims who in most cases happen to be boy children must be intensified by churches within all our communities” he added.
The Guardian 