Gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) activists have slammed President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying he and his Cabinet failed the nation’s GBV victims by showing a non-caring attitude towards what is now dubbed the number one pandemic in the country after Covid-19 had subsided.
The levels of violence against women and children have increased and the majority of activists also complained about the lack of care and urgency displayed by the SAPS, the DNA backlog at forensic services, as well as the shortage of social workers.
Many activists, different organisations and individuals have come out very strongly to criticise the lack of implementation of the National Strategic Plan.
Ramaphosa conceded that the government had let women and children down when he was addressing the second presidential summit on GBVF at the Gallagher Convention Centre on Tuesday.
Anti-GBV activist Rosie Motene said she believed the summit was just a case of ministers showing face. Many activists felt there was a lack of communications.
She said this was a GBV summit and the country was known as a rape capital of the world. Yet, some participants coming from as far as Mpumalanga, had to drive a long way to their accommodation. From a safety point of view, this was an issue.
“What Ramaphosa said was slightly ‘triggering’ (perplexing). It seems as if he had been media trained like many other government officials have been, but in a specific way to use feminist jargon.
“He was very calculating when addressing us and it was almost as if he knew the private conversations that we had and he addressed that. I know it is speculation, but it looks like somebody from within our camp shared details on how to address us,” said Motene.
She added: “After today, we are very disappointed. We thought it was going to be a summit where people would be held accountable and yet no proper report was done. On Monday, one of the reports wasn’t factual. It was based on statistics and one of the stats (was about) murders in Northern Cape which was absolute nonsense”.
She said yesterday someone who was supposed to be from Treasury didn’t come up with a proper report and that angered the activists.
“All that he could say was that 50% of the money from the first summit was spent, but not saying where. We found the response from the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, to be very defensive.
“The response from the Commission of Gender Equality, in terms of how money not accounted for is sent back to Treasury, (was telling).
“There are so many areas the money could have gone to fight against GBV, provide shelters (and) psychosocial support perhaps,” said Motene .
According to police statistics, the levels of violent crimes committed against women and children are alarmingly high. From April to June 2022, 855 women and 243 children were killed in South Africa.
Between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 there was a 52% increase in the murder of women, and 46% increase in the number of children murdered.
In 2019, UCT student Uyinene Mrwetyana’s rape and murder shone a spotlight on GBV and sparked outrage. This resulted in communities across the country marching to the Union Buildings against the scourge.
Anti-GBV activist Caroline Peters said: “We see how we changed Covid. The president has said GBV is a pandemic but nothing has changed. In fact, sexual violence has increased by 32%.
“We had the national acting (plice) commissioner who came here and gave us a whole lot of wrong figures. I almost feel like it's been depressing. What they presented is not what we see.
“The minister of social development couldn't answer a question around what has happened to the money that was promised for the work on GBV. We don’t see it making a difference in the lives of women and children.”
Ramaphosa, in his keynote address on Tuesday, said: “We agreed to develop a national strategic plan to guide our national response, to co-ordinate the various sectors involved in the fight against GBV, to strengthen the state’s response, and to align the efforts of government, the private sector and civil society.
“We decided to embark on a number of interventions to deal with the GBV crisis and femicide in country,” Ramaphosa said.
He said their first step was the development of a GBVF Emergency Response Action Plan in 2019.
“I requested Parliament’s presiding officers to call a special joint sitting to announce the action plan. The plan was embraced by members of Parliament representing all political parties.”
Ministers had to take the flak for Ramaphosa, and they did not hold back nor mince their words.
The Star