Focus on the boy child is one of the important factors in the fight against gender-based violence, the SA Communist Party declared at its "Augmented Central Committee" meeting this weekend.

So far the focus has been on women who are mostly at the receiving end of gender-based violence but the SACP believes that focus should also be put on boys who grow up to become men who perpetrate violence.

“The Central Committee stressed the increased importance of proper socialisation and equal treatment of all children, including now the necessity to focus on both the girl and the boy child,” SACP General Secretary Blade Nzimande said on Sunday.

The party's central committee said its been correct to focus on the girl child but also it was time now for "equal focus on the boy child because your main perpetrators of violence are men and we need to combat this early by also focusing on the boy child”.

The SACP resolved that it would intensify its campaign against violence in general. This comes after harsher actions against perpetrators of sexual violence following several cases of rape and femicide in recent days.

A University of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana was raped and killed, allegedly by a post office employee and a female boxing champion Leighandre "Baby Lee" Jegels was allegedly killed by her estranged policeman boyfriend. These events sparked an uproar with protests being held across the country, more so on the university campuses..

“Next month in October, we are launching our Red October campaign for 2019/2020 to build a variety of organisational fronts to primarily confront gender-based violence in society as well as defend our democracy and all confront the many other challenges that are facing our communities and local government,” Nzimande said.

He said the SACP was also calling for an integration of gender transformation in the schools curriculum in order to curb violence at an early stage.

“This must be aimed at eliminating gender-based violence and sexual harassment in all their forms and minifestations.

“The proposed change must start at the foundation level and be consistently maintained throughout schooling and our education system, particularly in Life Orientation but as well as in all other subjects,” said Nzimande.

He was speaking to the media in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, following the conclusion of the SACP’s three-day committee meeting.