Johannesburg - The month of August has been eventful in all corners of the country, with various conversations tackled, including the subject of gender-based violence (GBV).
In one of the efforts made to curb GBV, on August 24, an awareness campaign with the theme “Conquering GBVF through Art and Dialogue at Taverns” was held at Hillside in Thiyiwe Tavern in the Eastern Cape.
The SAPS’ Joe Gabi’s proactive approach to engaging with the public on crime-related matters has built a strong relationship with the community and the police.
It is said that this enables the police to inform and educate the community on how to handle situations and to immediately engage with the police when a crime has been committed.
According to police Captain Ursula Roelose, the approach aimed to focus on perpetrators and victims to establish the root cause of these crimes and to uproot them with immediate arrests to create a safe and secure environment for the community, especially for women and children.
“Different stakeholders, including government departments such as Social Development and NGOs such as Men Against Crime, joined in the dialogue and were all geared up to put the message across that ‘enough is enough’,” she said.
Acting District Commissioner Brigadier Asogran Naidoo hailed the dialogue as a success and said proactive initiatives such as this must be ongoing so our communities are educated and empowered.
Other provinces, such as Limpopo, have also confronted issues pertaining to GBV. This includes reducing the backlog and turnaround times for GBV-related cases.
End GBVF 100-Day Challenges, a national campaign that challenges front-line teams within the court and municipal ecosystems to develop and implement innovative strategies to address GBVF head-on, has also been active about GBV.
This has enabled 19 courts within Limpopo to delve into their processes and technology toolbox to identify new ways to reduce the turnaround time in processing GBV-related cases.
This wave of End GBVF 100-Day Challenges started on Women’s Day and is set to run until the “16 Days of Activism against GBV”, allowing all teams to dive deeper into ending GBVF over this commemorative period.
This includes domestic violence protection orders, sexual offences, divorce cases and maintenance cases. This effort is a part of the End GBVF 100-Day Challenges.
Regional Court president in Limpopo, Jakkie Wessels, said: “Adopting technology prevents tiresome court postponements and allows for a much more efficient system overall. We will see more courts utilising virtual systems to speed up their processes.”
The Star