The two day Gender Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Summit ran this week from Tuesday to
Wednesday in Gauteng.
During his address on Tuesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said South African men were responsible for
ending violent acts, adding that there are no words to describe the horrific murders and rapes.
He said there has been a 52% increase in the murder of women and a 46% increase in the murder of
children between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022.
This is a second summit since 2018 and many activists have said there is no will from the government to
strengthen efforts to fight GBVF.
Waterberg Women Advocacy Organisation Chairperson Francina Nkosi also added her organisation’s
voice on the matter.
She said the issue of GBVF is not given the same attention COVID-19 received.
“The matter should be treated like a pandemic and resources should be made available to address it. In
South Africa a person can inflict serious pain on another person, such as rape or assault GBV then they
get bail afterwards. What happens is that later on they come back to kill the victim.The government is
dragging its feet to fight GBVF”, said Nkosi.
She added that on top of the current awarenesses that are there such as 16 Days of Activism for no
violence against women and children,(observed between the 25 November and 10 December) there is a
need for 365 days of this activism.
Another challenge organisations such as WWAO face is lack of funding from government and the private
sector.
“As WWAO, we are part of Limpopo Women Sector and I can tell you now that it is difficult to get
funding and at times the focus is on organisations that have long been in existence. This makes things
difficult for new organisations to be on the ground visiting victims or areas that have a high number of
GBV incidents.”
There was a call on those who attended the summit to study the six pillars of the GBVF plan, to
determine where government has failed and to hold various stakeholders responsible.
The six pillars of the GBVF plan are:
Accountability, coordination and leadership,
Prevention and rebuilding social cohesion,
Justice, safety and protection,
Research and information system,
Economic power
Response, care, support and healing.