Structural violence and sexual objectification of black women at sex stokvels (Mavuso) in South African townships

On 17 June 2016, the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, spoke out against the danger of transactional sexual agreements that occur at sex stokvels (Mavuso). At sex stokvels black males and females gather and male patrons offer the females alcohol and petty cash in exchange for sex. The research study makes an open discussion on the implications that sexual violence and domestic violence due to alcohol consumption is a problem in South African townships (Mazibuko & Umejesi 2015:6584). The research paper will empirically challenge and theorise sex stokvels activities while providing substantive evidence on how black men and women pervasively negotiate their sexuality. At these social gatherings women are given monetary rewards to maintain the patriarchal power of males over females, which leaves unemployed women to explore alternative strategies to achieve income security (Matuku & Kaseke 2014:507). In essence, these transactional sexual agreements provide women with access to goods and services they would not ordinarily receive (Matuku & Kaseke 2014:507); leaving room for conflict or misunderstanding and sexual violence to occur through systematic sexual practices aimed at devaluing women. The research assesses the impact of sexual violence on the social environment, and the existence of the paradigm of structural violence. Structural violence defines someone's identity in accordance with another person’s rules and perceptions of social structures and behaviours in relation to a particular system that is oppressive to him/her. Considering this, black women are sexually objectified at sex stokvels, and transactional sex is accepted as normal. A qualitative research approach is adopted in that secondary data was used, namely video-research-based observational technique.