President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged every member of society to become part of the solution to curb the incidence of gender-based violence in South African communities.
“Gender-based violence will only end when everyone takes responsibility… in their homes, communities, workplaces, places of worship and schools,” President Ramaphosa said on Thursday.
Delivering the 2021 State of the Nation Address in Parliament, President Ramaphosa said ending gender-based violence is imperative if the country wants to build an equal and non-sexist nation.
“Over the next three years, government will allocate approximately R12 billion to implement the various components of the National Strategic Plan,” President Ramaphosa said.
President Ramaphosa launched the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence in April last year.
At that time, President Ramaphosa made a promise to the women and children that government would strengthen the criminal justice system to prevent secondary trauma for victims and to ensure that perpetrators face justice.
“To give effect to this, three key pieces of legislation were introduced in Parliament last year to make the criminal justice system more effective in combatting gender-based violence.
“To ensure that perpetrators are brought to book, we are making progress in reducing the backlog of gender-based violence cases,” President Ramaphosa said.
On Wednesday, Cabinet welcomed the launch of the Gender-based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Response Fund, which seeks to strengthen the country’s response to GBVF.
President Cyril Ramaphosa last week launched the private sector-led, multi-sectoral GBVF Response Fund.
During the launch, business and donor communities commended President Ramaphosa for supporting efforts to end GBVF. They also pledged some millions to the fund.
The fund will give effect to one of the resolutions from the Declaration of the GBVF Summit held in 2018, which calls on all social partners in the country, including government, civil society and other role players, to work together to find lasting interventions to end GBV. – SAnews.gov.za
