Pretoria - Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu has officially relaunched the gender-based violence command centre in Salvokop to serve as a strategic link for victims to reach stakeholders, psychosocial support programmes and garner community involvement.
Zulu was speaking at the launch of the centre on the third day of the country observing the 16-Days of Activism for No Violence against Women in Children, stating that she hoped the centre would be able to make use of new technologies to provide assistance wherever it was required and not only reach out to a select few.
She said the centre which was a long time coming would hopefully be able to reduce the stress and strain, but most importantly be able to get the necessary institutions that have to act when women find themselves in dire situations.
Zulu said it had to be the most immediate point of contact where women and children under distress would be able to call and get help immediately.
She said they had social workers on stand by to offer psychosocial support but also provided the added benefit of being able to trace calls made to the hotline.
“So if there is a call it is traced so that the police and all relevant structures that need to respond can be able to go there and find out what is happening.”
“The most important thing is that it shouldn’t just be a call and then nothing happens afterwards. It should give us a lead to which area the call is coming from and then connect it to the police so then they can immediately react.”
Zulu said following its successes they had decided to relaunch the centre in a better area but also to better equip it.
Pretoria News