GEORGE NEWS - As the last day of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign arrives tomorrow (Sunday 10 December), a R1,6-billion budget allocation has done little to stem the tide of violent crimes against women and children.

And this is not only affecting people in other parts of the country. At least 186 people fell victim to gender-based violence (GBV) in George between July and October this year. This is according to the statistics of Thuthuzela Care Centre in George, where the victims were treated. 

The majority of these cases involved child victims, with 14 offences committed under the Children's Act and 103 of the cases involving sexual offences. 

Thuthuzela supported 69 victims of domestic violence. Most incidents occurred over weekends and in most cases the perpetrator is known to the victim.

Commitments at presidential summits
According to Dr Nthabiseng Moleko, senior lecturer in managerial economics and statistics at Stellenbosch Business School, commitments and presidential summits on gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) in 2018 and 2022 have missed their targets and “crucial interventions have never materialised”.

This includes the budget allocated to roll out the national Emergency Response Action Plan (Erap) in 2019.

“South African Police Service (Saps) quarterly crime statistics repeatedly confirm that our nation has among the worst levels of rape, murder and sexual offences in the world,” she said.

Statistics
Crime statistics for July to September this year estimate 100 rapes and 78 women killed daily, she said, with 5 945 murders, 13 090 sexual offences and 10 516 rapes committed across the country in the three months.

Meanwhile, the Erap with its R1,6-billion budget allocation had failed to achieve almost two-thirds (64%) of its targets and partially achieved only 15%, according to a 2022 assessment by the Commission for Gender Equality.

Moleko, a former deputy chair of the Commission, said interventions that had failed to materialise included clearing the backlog of DNA samples requiring testing so that GBV, femicide and sexual offence cases could be cleared.

Drastic input needed
The processing of GBVF-related cases required “drastic input” into DNA analysis equipment and competencies to increase the output rate of testing forensic samples, but this had not happened. “Cases are still delayed, victims’ rights to justice are deferred and perpetrators remain free to do as they please,” said Moleko.

Ahead of the follow-up summit on GBVF in 2022, provincial summits were held to assess whether interventions after the 2018 summit had been successful in reducing rape and violence against women and children.

“It was difficult to find any measures with proven impact and success, and we also saw a general inability of the existing policy and institutional framework to respond with agility and speed to provide recourse for victims.”

Government’s austerity measures, announced in both the February budget this year and the medium-term budget policy statement in October, will further cut financial support to NGOs, despite these being key providers of critical support to victims in the absence of the state. 

At the same time, a GBV council which is intended to oversee and hold the state accountable to its commitments, has yet to be established.

Non-achievements
Another non-achievement Moleko highlighted was the inability of the state to prioritise interventions intended to assist vulnerable groups in accessing economic opportunities. 

Gender-responsive budgeting and a target of 40% of government procurement being awarded to women-owned businesses were “non-starters”, she said.

“The impact is that vulnerable women who stay in relationships for economic survival are likely to remain in those abusive relationships. With the current cost-of-living crisis, combined with the adverse impact of load shedding on the provision of economic opportunities, we are likely to see an increase in dependency levels.”

Moleko questioned whether the police and the justice system were ready for the impact of decriminalising prostitution, given the already high levels of sexual and violent crime.

“We are on the precipice of yet another own goal, where amid a society where citizens are unsafe and victims of sexual and violent crimes are yet to receive justice, our own government supports the further exploitation of women. All evidence points to an inability to prevent, prohibit and even eliminate the continued subjugation of women and children,” she said.

“Exploitation and violence within the sex industry is proven; as is the degradation of human rights and the inextricable link between this industry and the criminal underworld, including human trafficking. In a country where poverty, unequal power relations, patriarchy and normalisation of violence against women and children is the norm, how can we be unleashing this further violence?”

If GBVF is to be effectively addressed, Moleko argues that the justice system must be properly resourced with expertise, and officials must be held accountable against measurable indicators.

“A change in the hearts of those implementing the systems and procedures to care for and serve the people who are victims. Compassion and a desire to see justice implemented by a meritocracy and integrity-filled courts, the police and public sector bureaucrats.

“The nation is in need of healing and counsel, justice and economic opportunities, reparation and, for perpetrators, imprisonment,” she said.

Moleko said that while government could implement structures, task teams and committees, functional families and communities are at the heart of combatting violence against women and children.

“As with the nucleus of an atom that holds everything together in chemistry, so the structure and functioning of a society is reliant on families that build communities. The government can set policies, but the structures and atoms, the nucleus that holds a nation together – families – have been destroyed. 

"The rebuilding of families that have suffered the desolation of many generations is required. I hope that every community, like the parts of a cell, will begin to address the dysfunction in our families aggressively. 

"The extent of the damage we have experienced as a nation requires healing that is beyond charters and articles in any legislation.”

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