Winner of the 2010 Gender and Media Summit Awards Best Television Documentary
South Africa has one of the highest rates of gender based violence in the world. This is not the country that Nonkosi Khumalo, a human rights activist, wants her daughter to grow up in.
Nonkosi is the chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign and mother of a little girl called Owethu. She is also dedicated to the struggle for equality in South Africa, especially for women.
In A Country For My Daughter Nonkosi travels around the country investigating the stories of brave women whose court cases have transformed the law in South Africa for the better. The cases range from rape within a family to holding the Minister of Safety and Security liable, in cases where police were involved in violence against women. Through these stories, Nonkosi learns of the laws available to protect South African women and how they can be used.
In a country where many sexual assaults go unreported, the struggle must extend beyond the courtroom and into communities. Nonkosi visits Khayelitsha, where social mobilization brought justice to Nandipha Makeke’s family by prompting the arrest and prosecution of those who had raped and killed her.
A Country For My Daughter highlights the gap between South Africa’s good legislation and the real experiences of women living in the country.