THE DA wants the Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Maite Nkoana-Mashabane to account for the government’s slow response to the fight against gender-based violence and femicide in the country.
The call was made after the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) issued a damning report that more that 60% of the government’s targets in its Emergency Response Action Plan (ERAP) to deal with gender-based violence and femicide has not been reached.
DA deputy spokesperson on women, youth and persons with disabilities Nazley Sharif said the fact that out of 81 targets, only 17 were met and 12 partially achieved, leaving 51 (63.75%) targets unmet, was shameful.
“The DA raised questions regarding the effectiveness of the ERAP when it was first presented in 2019, as well as in subsequent committee meetings with… Nkoana-Mashabane and the Deputy Director-General Shoki Tshabalala, who leads the department’s response to GBVF. The fact is the government does not have strong structures, processes and systems in place to ensure monitoring and evaluation, oversight, consequence management or accountability,” Sharif said.
She said the the DA was concluding its national oversight tour to Thuthuzela care centres and could confirm that the experience of those fighting the scourge of GBVF in our communities reflect the government’s absence highlighted by the CGE report.
“Although the care centres try their utmost, they struggle with resources and capacitation of specialist staff, thereby perpetuating the suffering of GBV victims. We will write to the chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee of women, youth and persons with disabilities, Nonhlanhla Ndaba, to hold an urgent meeting to discuss the CGE report, as well as write to the minister for an explanation of her department’s dismal failure to implement ERAP targets.”
Sharif said the DA would also submit parliamentary questions to the National Treasury regarding ERAP’s R1.6 billion budget and how it has been spent.
Some of the targets that the SAPS has failed to meet, according to Sharif, include reducing the backlog for GBV-related forensic cases, prioritising complaints related to GBV so they are dealt with within seven days and conducting training on the guidelines of management of survivors of sexual violence at all police stations.
POLITICAL BUREAU