With the seasons gradually assuming the colours and vibrancy of spring, our September issue is dedicated to the women of the Boland. With August being host to Woman’s Day, we thought that for this issue we will concentrate our energy on women in business, inspirational sportswomen and particularly the more vulnerable women in our society.

The media is often a brutal place in which to scratch out a living in terms of being exposed to the less savoury elements of our society. Woman abuse is rampant within our country and despite efforts to rein it in to acceptable levels (as if any level of abuse can be deemed acceptable) a glance at our daily newspapers confirms that woman abuse is an illness that plagues all echelons of our society. Women contribute an enormous amount of sacrifice, knowledge and wisdom to our society, community and ultimately our families and it’s imperative that they be recognised and treated with respect in this regard. We should be ashamed of the fact that South Africa is widely viewed in global terms as a country with the highest incidents of woman abuse and rape. Ignoring or sweeping this unfortunate fact beneath the carpet is certainly not doing our women any justice and is perhaps indicative of the general apathy society tends to show towards issues of this nature. We all know that it happens, yet we choose to pretend that it doesn’t and that alone may be considered a crime. Perhaps the time has come for the men in our society – the everyday heroes found in many families – to stand up and make their voices heard in no uncertain terms that any form of woman abuse is unacceptable and that there are dire consequences for the perpetrators. This attitude needs to start at home within the family unit and fathers must be proactive in embedding the fact into their children that woman abuse is not only a crime against the individual, but a crime against our collective community and greater society as well that will not go unpunished.

The popular saying that “if you strike a woman you strike the rock” is indeed relevant as a great deal of what we know today within our communities and society has been built and nurtured by the efforts of our women. It’s perhaps best that we all bear this in mind, for without our women to guide us, the world as we now know it may have been a vastly different place. Elsewhere in the magazine there is an article about the Helderberg Rape Crisis Centre and the magnificent work and miracles they perform in their chosen pursuit. We here at the Capey Magazine will be making a donation to this worthy cause and we urge our readers to spare a thought and penny for the less fortunate among us.

In closing, make September the month in which you do things for the woman in your life without being asked: Take out the rubbish, buy her flowers and bring her a jersey when its cold– the rewards are far greater than any of us can imagine.