Image Source: eNCA
Local – Despite a provincial action plan by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi to tackle gender-based violence and femicide, Clinical Director at The Teddy Bear Clinic and social justice activist Dr Shaheda Omar said the 60-day deadline would not clear the massive case backlog.
Omar said the deadline should be understood as a period for establishing control over the backlog, not a promise that tens of thousands of cases would be investigated, prosecuted and resolved. She said the backlog probably exceeded the 55,000 cases cited, and warned against the government presenting a spreadsheet of cases as a success.
“That audit is not justice. It’s just a case number being accounted for and is not the same as when a survivor or victim has received justice, or there’s closure or has received closure and support, and the case has been resolved. So I think that is something we have to address. It’s not possible,” she said.
Green Doors Unknown To Many Communities
Lesufi’s plan includes tighter monitoring of police stations, audits of unsafe public spaces and increased support for victims and shelters. Ten police stations with high numbers of rape cases have been prioritised, and the province plans to increase the number of SAPS GBV desks from 145 and expand its network of green doors, which provide places of safety and support to victims.
However, Omar said people in hotspot and disadvantaged communities still did not know where to seek help, and many were wary of police after facing accusatory questioning and secondary victimisation. She added that officers were overloaded and not sufficiently trained.
“It’s all, you know, well and good to say there are so many green doors, but go to some of the communities and ask them, do they know what a green door is? Do they know that they could, you know, get support from a shelter because even the shelters, as we speak, are more restrictive and less empowering, where it, you know, it might be a shelter for women and girl child only or only specific ages. So there are restrictions,” she said.
Plans Look Perfect On Paper
President Cyril Ramaphosa has also instructed municipalities to conduct women’s safety audits focusing on risky transport routes, overgrown areas, abandoned houses and broken streetlights. Omar said the country had already held two summits on gender-based violence, and that the real test lay in the rollout of plans and the money allocated to them.
“I was on the interim steering committee in the office of the presidency, and we worked on the emergency response action plan, and we developed a national strategic plan. As I said, on paper, everything is absolutely perfect. It’s the actual rollout and allocating budgets to it, because if there’s no money or sufficient allocation of money to these different projects and programs to protect women and children, we’re not going to find any change happening at the local level or at the national level,” she said.
