GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN SA UPDATE BY JESSIE TAYLOR
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outh Africa faces alarmingly high numbers of gender-based violence – a situation that has been compounded by the lockdown regulations implemented to fight the global pandemic. Creating an equal society in which South African women are safe and included requires a holistic approach. This is why government and private businesses have started partnering to raise funds needed to roll out programmes that will create a more equal society. Turning the tide Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Maite NkoanaMashabane says the country continues to see acts of violence perpetrated against girls and women daily. “The sad reality is that despite high levels of stop genderbased violence and femicide, many incidents remain undocumented, underreported and are unaccounted for within national statistics.
Even accounted for cases are shockingly high,” Minister Nkoana-Mashabane said.
The business community is taking an active role in funding programmes to increase women’s safety and inclusion In the most recent South African Police Service crime statistics, there were 53 776 sexual offences recorded. Of those, 42 664 were rape cases. “Existing data has shown that the lockdown levels impacted on levels of reporting. The Department of Social Development Gender-Based Violence Command Centre also showed a dramatic increase in the number of calls, SMSes and USSDs, with the number of overall calls increasing significantly,” Minister Nkoana-Mashabane said. This suggests that the lockdown levels impacted women’s ability to report incidences or seek
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help through regular channels. “What is clear is that even though the government has committed an immense amount of resources to ending stop gender-based violence and femicide, men continue to abuse, rape and murder women. The department calls on all South Africans to play their part in fighting this scourge and to unite in the fight against GBVF,” said Minister NkoanaMashabane. A shared responsibility Tackling gender-based violence requires a whole of society approach, with government and private partnership at the centre. This has been put into effect through the Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Response Fund, a private sectorled effort to dedicate resources to fighting gender-based violence. At the launch of the fund, the business community pledged more than R128 million. The private-sector led, multisectoral fund will support the implementation of the National Strategic Plan. This plan is South Africa’s roadmap to ending
