An accountability dialogue organised by Masimanyane Women’s Rights International on August 23 revealed that little has been done by local government departments this year to combat gender-based violence and femicide, despite promises made by the premier last year.
Local NGO Vukani! Embrace Faith and Hope, which does relief work with survivors in West Bank, noted an increase in GBVF incidents, which was worsened by unemployment.
Director of Vukani, Lucille Benfield, said: “Women in West Bank are being beaten up in public by their spouses, stabbed and hurt. Most of them open protection orders, but they go back to being abused, because the perpetrator is the bread winner.
“The children suffer the most as they have no stability. It makes them suffer in school, and affects their social development.
“The city has absolutely no place for homeless, abused and afflicted people, yet there are so many abandoned government buildings.
“Social development should be more available and accessible as we, NGOs, are not receiving their services due to the fact, we are told, they are working from home.
“While people need them out there, we have no way of getting help from them.”
Dr Lesley-Ann Foster announced at the dialogue that class action would be pursued against the department due to the failure of staff to provide services.
At the provincial summit on GBVF in 2022, premier Oscar Mabuyane committed to fast- tracking the opening of a provincial DNA lab; implementing GBVF sensitivity training for police and healthcare workers; implementing moral regeneration programmes for men and boys; improving reporting mechanisms for survivors in rural areas and those with disabilities; and co-ordinating those responsible for meeting the outcomes of the National Strategic Plan for GBVF, among other plans.
Masimanyane said clarity on the progress of these commitments had not been established at the dialogue as representatives of government departments present did not provide co-ordinated reports, and no-one from the premier’s office had attended.
Masimanyane also said they were made aware at the dialogue that the provincial plan on GBVF had not been signed by the premier’s office, making it difficult for local departments to include GBVF plans in their annual budgets for next year.
Farida Myburgh, from Masimanyane, said: “The departments present gave feedback individually and this made it clear to us there is no co-ordinated effort in local government to meet the objectives of the National Strategic Plan and the provincial plan against GBVF.
“We managed to get a picture of the challenges we are up against but much of the information presented came from our Women Ikhwelo Network, not local government.
“The province is rife with poverty and as this grows so does sexual assault and GBV.
“East London Police Station is among the top three with the highest statistics for sexual assault and domestic violence and Lusikisiki is the rape capital of the country.
“The lack of accountability from local government has proved to us that civil society needs to start organising class action because the strain of meeting GBVF outcomes and providing services for survivors is placed on the NGO sector and we do not have resources and capacity to do the work that should be done by government.”
BCM executive mayor Princess Faku said the municipality would roll out surveillance cameras using artificial intelligence to track perpetrators, establish a GBVF multisectoral committee and community policing forums throughout the city, review its crime prevention strategy and ensure more women were promoted to senior roles in the municipality.
