Abstract
Gender-based violence (GBV) is a major social issue not only in South Africa but also throughout the world. This study examines Limpopo-based viewers' perceptions of GBV represented in South African soap operas Skeem Saam and Muvhango. It explores how audiences of Skeem Saam and Muvhango from Limpopo province interpret GBV in soap operas. This qualitative study employed focus group discussions to collect data from participants drawn from Limpopo province's five districts. The study is informed by the Reception Theory by Stuart Hall (Encoding and Decoding) and Feminist theory. The participants, who were chosen using snowball sampling, had already seen the two soapies but had been drawn by the researcher to focus on specific episodes of Skeem Saam and Muvhango containing explicit GBV sequences. Thematic analysis was used for data presentation and interpretation. The research found that GBV manifests itself through the characters in Skeem Saam and Muvhango. Men in Skeem Saam and Muvhango have been placed in a powerful position because of socio-cultural dynamics such as marriages that have been arranged culturally. Distorted traditional norms have been found to play a crucial role in terms of promoting GBV against women. Thus GBV, as depicted in these two serials, affects women in a variety of ways, most notably emotionally (emotional abuse). This is because some of the respondents described receiving emotional or psychological abuse at the hands of their friends, colleagues, and society immediately after thinking about Skeem Saam and Muvhango violence scenes.