As part of ongoing efforts to address the scourge of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, on the 21st October, the North West Provincial Government hosted the GBVF summit as a build up to the second Presidential GBVF Summit to be held on the 1st and 2nd of November this year.
The theme of the summit is Accountability,
Acceleration and Ampli¬fication, NOW! These summits will take place in all 9 provinces with the objective to demonstrate continued high-level commitment and state accountability for the provincial and national response to GBVF as well as to accelerate accountability and actions by key government departments and stakeholders including civil society, private sector and labour.
The aim is to share areas of progress and provide a space for wider collaborative engagement between all stakeholders to strategize and strengthen the overall response to and prevention of GBVF in our country which brings the whole-of-society approach into focus.
On the 28th March 2019 a GBFV Declaration was signed at the Booysens Magistrate Court by the President, representatives from respective civil society formations and social movements. The Declaration consists of 19 Articles that reflect recommendations emerging.
Addressing the delegation, North West Premier Bushy Maape said, “Gender based violence and femicide is a scourge, a pandemic that is a serious crisis. Its origin and sustenance is the asymmetrical power relations between men and women. There are victims in terms of these power relations and without us conceptualising North West Provincial Government Intensifies Efforts to Fight the Scourge of Gender-Based Violence the real cause of this scourge, it will be difficult for us to uproot it.”
Maape said that we are all complicated, we are doing it, we are encouraging it and at times we even watch it as it happens. He said that this requires serious confrontation. According to Minister Bheki Cele's Quarter One Crime Statistics 2022/2023 he assured that SAPS will continue to prioritize Gender Based Violence. 9 516 rape cases were opened with SAPS between April and June 2022. This is almost 500 less rape cases reported, compared to the same period last year.
While rape cases declined in all provinces, the North West and Northern Cape provinces are the only provinces to report increases in this crime category. Violent crimes committed against women and children recorded alarmingly high and unacceptable levels. From April to June 2022, 855 women and 243 children were killed in South Africa.
