{"id":194799,"date":"2021-07-12T15:04:58","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T13:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/minister-calls-for-renewed-efforts-to-counter-gbvf\/"},"modified":"2021-07-12T15:04:58","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T13:04:58","slug":"minister-calls-for-renewed-efforts-to-counter-gbvf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/minister-calls-for-renewed-efforts-to-counter-gbvf\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister calls for renewed efforts to counter GBVF"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, has reiterated calls for increased vigilance and activism as the country battles gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will soon be presenting our Year 1 Report on the Implementation of the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence to President Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is clear is that even though government has committed an immense amount of resources to ending GBVF, men continue to abuse, rape and murder women.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe department calls on all South Africans to play their part in fighting this scourge and to unite in the fight against GBVF,\u201d Nkoana-Mashabane said on Monday.<\/p>\n

The Minister said despite the reported high levels of GBVF, many incidents remain undocumented, underreported and are unaccounted for within national statistics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2020\/2021 sexual offences statistics are yet to be released by SAPS [South African Police Service], however, in 2019\/2020 SAPS recorded 53 776 sexual offences; 42 664 of these were rape cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst the final figure for the 2020\/21 financial year has not been released, existing data has shown that the lockdown levels impacted on levels of reporting.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, the four 2020\/21 quarterly crime statistics indicated a total of 46 447 sexual offences. According to the 2020\/21 statistics, 9 518 people were raped between January and March 2021,\u201d the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Seeking help<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Department of Social Development GBV Command Centre also showed a dramatic increase in the number of calls, SMSs and USSDs, with the number of overall calls increasing significantly from 54 849 in 2019\/20 to 157 952 in 2020\/21.<\/p>\n

The number of GBV referred calls increased three-fold from the previous financial year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis suggests that the lockdown levels impacted on women\u2019s ability to report incidences or seek help through regular channels,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n

The Department of Health reported a cumulative total of 36 363 new sexual assault cases at public facilities for the 2020\/21 financial year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis number is not the complete picture, as it only covers public facilities. These numbers might be difficult to comprehend, or may even seem unbelievable to some,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n

The department lamented cases where women opt to drop charges against abusers. \u201cThe circumstances range from women who are pressured to drop rape and sexual assault cases by their friends to prevent a falling out amongst friends and family members, or women who wish to marry and leave their past behind or women who can no longer bear the emotional burden of a case that is being investigated for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The department calls upon all South Africans to play their part in fighting this scourge and to unite in the fight against GBVF.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage everyone to be on the lookout for early warning signs of gender-based violence and report anything out of the ordinary to SAPS for further investigation,\u201d the department said.  <\/p>\n

Play your part<\/strong><\/p>\n

The department said action against GBVF can be taken in any of the following ways:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u25cf          Increase awareness and visibility: Incorporate GBVF key messages in all discussions, addresses in all aspects of your daily life.<\/p>\n

\u25cf          Utilise GBVF posters in your spaces.<\/p>\n

\u25cf          Partner with government, business, media houses, private sector in hosting GBVF events  and heighten communications around GBVF.<\/p>\n

\u25cf          Leverage on other mega events such as sporting events, national days, themed days, conferences etc. to spread messages on ending GBVF.<\/p>\n

\u25cf          Host lectures, debates and discussions on GVBF on topics such as eradicating patriarchal attitudes.<\/p>\n

\u25cf          Host learner competitions on equality, justice and human dignity.<\/p>\n

\u25cf          Host engagements with men and boys to encourage positive masculinity.<\/p>\n

\u25cf          Utilise your social media platforms to condemn any form of GBVF.<\/p>\n

\u25cf          Report any act or sign of gender-based violence.<\/p>\n

\u25cf          Join www.for-women.co.za<\/a> \u2013 a hub for survivors and victims who need help and corporates who can offer help. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, has reiterated calls for increased vigilance and activism as the country battles gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF). \u201cWe will soon be presenting our Year 1 Report on the Implementation of the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence to President Ramaphosa. \u201cWhat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-194799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-sanews","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}