Government is not serious about ending gender-based violence

Statement from Civil Society Organisations working on Gender Based Violence

Despite President Cyril Ramaphosa’s pronouncements in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) just two weeks ago, there is no evidence in the budget delivered by Minister Tito Mboweni on 20 February 2019 that government is serious about ending Gender Based Violence in this country.

In the SONA, President Ramaphosa promised that government would be “strengthening the functioning of various specialised units such as the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Units and improving our administrative and record keeping capacity at all levels.”

The 2019 budget presented by Minister Mboweni does not indicate where government intends to reallocate the money for these functions. It appears that President Ramaphosa was merely paying lip service to the eradication of Gender Based Violence and Femicide with no political will to follow through.

The President announced in the SONA that the South Africa Police Services had embarked on a restructuring process to shift more policing resources to the local level. We question the veracity of this statement when the Minister of Finance announced that: “Over the medium term, R853 million is shifted from the South African Police Service to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, which will now be responsible for the Integrated Justice System Modernisation Programme, a key component of the integrated strategy to fight crime.”

As women impacted by the scale of the violence directed against us, we believed the President when he said that government had “listened to the call to make funds available to combat gender-based violence, and have allocated funding in the current budget to support the decisions taken at the Summit.” There is no evidence of this in this current budget.

We note that there has been a R150 million increase to VIP protection services from R2.94 billion to R3.14 billion. In order to demonstrate government’s commitment to the protection of women, we contend that this money should be reallocated to achieve the resolutions taken at the Gender Based Violence and Femicide Summit.

Paramount is the Interim Structure that will develop the National Strategic Plan for GBV. It is imperative that this structure and the plan are put in put in place, and that adequate budget is allocated for its implementation with timelines for delivery.

If this country is ever going to end Gender Based Violence, the state needs to put money behind prevention programmes. We therefore welcome the increase of funds directed at substance abuse programmes but we remind the President that he made a promise to us that he would make funds available to expand and fund places of support such as the Thuthuzela Care Centres and Khuseleka Care Centres.

We demand that he keeps his word.

For comment contact:

Mandisa Khanyile Nontsikelelo Mpulo
Rise Up against gender based violence SECTION27
073 506 2143 / 082 782 7143

Civil Society Organisations who endorse this statement:

1. ActionAid South Africa
2. African Diaspora Forum Women’s League
3. Black Womxn Caucus
4. Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
5. The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR)
6. The Curriculum Development Project Trust
7. Foundation for Human Rights
8. Hlanganisa Institute for Development in Southern Africa (HIDSA)
9. Lawyers against Abuse (LvA)
10. LifeLine
11. One in Nine Campaign
12. Rise Up against gender based violence
13. SECTION27
14. Shukumisa Coalition
15. Sonke Gender Justice
16. Soul City
17. The South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (SACCAWU)
18. The Teddy Bear Foundation
19. The Total Shutdown
20. Tosunga Baninga
21. Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre
22. Women Leadership Social Empowerment