Question NW518 to the Minister in The Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities

Reply:

The responsibility for combating the scourge of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) rests with all-of-society if we are to make any meaningful progress toward its eradication. GBVF is a complex phenomenon that happens in families, households and communities thus we need all to be invested in the fight against this pandemic. From each individual, household/family, community to all state actors, there is a need for a concerted no tolerance to GBVF in all its forms. This will ensure the implementation of both proactive and reactive measures to combat the scourge.

In March 2020, Cabinet approved the National Strategic Plan on GBVF and the establishment of both the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on GBVF and the National Council on GBVF. The implementation of the NSP on GBVF coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2020, the department coordinates and monitors the implementation of the NSP on GBVF by governments and key stakeholders monthly.

With this understanding in mind, the department coordinates and monitors the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on Gender-based Violence and Femicide (NSP on GBVF) by government and key stakeholders monthly.

Despite the COVID-19 context, the government continued to address GBVF as a twin pandemic so as to better understand its impact on women. We set up an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on GBVF in June 2020 consisting of the Ministers of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities as the convener; Social Development; Police; Justice and Correctional Services; Public Service and Administration and National Treasury to guide the process of implementation.

There are pockets of positive results through various multi-sectoral collaborative platforms that implement joint interventions and funding mechanisms. We have the END GBVF Collective that has been implementing 100 days challenges; and the faith sector collaborative platform that plays a central role in prevention and rebuilding social cohesion.

In February 2021 we launched the private sector GBVF Response Fund. The fund follows the principles enshrined in the NSP on GBVF of harnessing the roles, responsibilities and resources of all stakeholders.

The relationship between civil society networks and governments have allowed for a strengthened and coordinated implementation. Various development partners and academic institutions have also contributed towards implementation.

The process of localisation is bolstered by the establishment and capacitation of Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) at district and local municipality levels across the country. The department does not have a provincial foot. To strengthen reach, through support from European Union Gender equality and women’s empowerment programme we have appointed GBVF technical monitors and data capturers and placed them in provinces.

The department has driven the National Council on GBVF Bill as a game-changer in the fight against GBVF. Key principles in the Bill include coordination championed by the highest political office, a multi-sectoral structure, institutional independence and autonomy, a ring-fenced budget with a dedicated GBVF fund, a bottom-up approach across all government tiers, and significant collaboration between government and civil society.

For the 2023/2024 Annual Performances Plan, the Department committed to monitor and enforce accountability to the targets of the NSP on GBVF including but not limited to reporting on implementation of the NSP on GBVF by government and key stakeholders through the following interventions:

1) Submission of monthly progress reports that are collated and analysed by the department; and quality assured by the Department of Planning, monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) and the Presidency; used to produce annual reports.

2) The Department presents these progress reports that outlines gaps, challenges and areas of improvement across the 6 NSP on GBVF Pillars to various Directors-General Clusters and the Forum of South African Directors-General (FOSAD) as a standing item. These monthly reports are translated into a quarterly report for the attention of the President.

3) The department utilizes these reports as a tool to monitor, enforce accountability of Accounting Officers and afford them the opportunity to assess progress made by their respective departments in implementing their allocated NSP on GBVF targets and take necessary corrective measures.

4) The 2 NSP on GBVF Annual Reports produced by the department include the score cards that further reflect the level of sector department performance across the 6 Pillars of the NSP on GBVF and recommendations for implementation.

Ultimately our success is about women, children and LGBTQIA+ persons feeling safe and free in their homes, in their communities and in themselves. We have also developed a prevention strategy as prevention is key in curbing murders and all forms of gendered violence. Currently, we are in the process of driving the concept of dealing with GBVF as a pandemic. We had the inaugural workshop with government stakeholders across all tiers in March 2024. In this drive, we want to use our convening power as the department to institutionalise a coordinated national response from national, to provinces, to districts, municipalities and to ward levels.

GBVF continues to be a national crisis, and this may make it difficult to see the pockets of progress. We have been intensifying efforts to harness all to collectively respond, accelerate efforts, and develop partnerships and strategies toward a whole-of-society approach toward eradicating GBVF.