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23 April 2021 Media Release: GRDM continues its efforts to collaboratively address Gender-Based Violence (GBV) 

Media Release: GRDM continues its efforts to collaboratively address Gender-Based Violence (GBV)

For immediate release
23 April 2021

Media Release: GRDM continues its efforts to collaboratively address Gender-Based Violence (GBV) 

Stakeholders from various government departments, municipalities in the Garden Route district and community representatives, gathered as a collective in Mossel Bay on 20 April 2021 to continue to strategise and discuss methods to prevent GBV in the Garden Route.

The Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Femicide Prevention Summit was the second of its kind to be hosted by the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) in collaboration with the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Western Cape Department of Community Safety. The event’s primary purpose was to tackle the issues women and children are challenged with to claim and retain their rightful place in society. The aim of the event was thus for representatives to identify future actions to safeguard communities. These were done through four commissions. The entire room of attendees was split into four groups to discuss the following topics: Pro-Active and Preventative; Re-Active and Response; Rehabilitation and Re-integration and GBV in the context of Covid 19 lockdown.

The shortcomings in our communities identified by these groups were, among others, the lack of mentors and role models and moral values, access to services, to name a few. Some of the proposed actions identified include establishing victim support programmes, the empowerment of non-governmental organisations and non-profit organisations to drive awareness programmes relating to GBV. Furthermore, safe houses should be established in all local municipal areas of the Garden Route district. It was also proposed that government organisations such as the Department of Correctional Services should provide a 24/7 service to assist victims with domestic violence-related crimes.

During his welcoming address, GRDM Executive Mayor Ald. Memory Booysen said: “I tend to look at the big crimes when it comes to violence, the crimes SAPS are trying to resolve. But there are other issues; sometimes, men do not realise that they have abusive habits. For example, when a woman arrives at home after a day’s work and the partner/husband asks her to see what messages she had received during the day and from whom, or why are certain messages deleted from her cell phone – these are the type of abuse women are faced with”. Adding to this, he said: “Most of the times women are happy at work because being at work is a distraction from what is happening at home or what is waiting at home. When business close, they start to realise that they still need to go home to the monster waiting for them at home – these are the fears women have to deal with,” he said.

Major-General Oswald Reddy, Eden Cluster Commander, provided a message of support to the initiative and explained the structure in place to defeat the issue of GBV. He said:” SAPS has worked on the GBV programme on a national level which is an integrated Sexually Offences and Gender-Based Violence Action Plan”. According to Reddy, a forum is further launched on the Provincial level with all clusters in the Western Cape Province. On the cluster level operations, he said: “We have appointed chairpersons for all streams working on issues of GBV, which is going to filter down to each police station. And during our next Community Police Forum (CPF) meeting, we will discuss how we get the CPF on board to take ownership of the plan so that their six focus areas can be given serious attention”.

Advocate Leslie Morris, a passionate lawyer who educates vulnerable victims of domestic violence, as well as assisting and educating them when they experience difficulties  relating to their cases, referred to the reality of how crimes are classified according to categories. He made an example of a woman killed in a luxury hotel or upper-class area and how it is categorised differently from a woman being killed in an informal settlement.

He highlighted that no one is above the law, “whether you stay in an upmarket area or an in an informal settlement. When addressing the men in the room, he said: “We will never get rid of gender-based violence as long as we want to be seen as the superior of women – we need to understand and remember that all of us have equal rights and we are all equal before the law”.

According to Siphiwe Dladla, Chief of Staff in the Office of the Executive Mayor and co-driver of the project, all inputs and proposed actions by the various commissions will be circulated to all participants with the main aim that it be implemented by the relevant stakeholders in the various municipal areas (constituencies) of the district.

As the attendees left the event, the GRDM Council is optimistic that participants will remember and convey the messages of advice and hope to their respective community representatives and implement the proposed resolutions, because as Justin Lottring, Deputy Director: Community Safety in the Western Cape at the event said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has”.

In the video:
Executive Mayor, Ald. Memory Booysen, sharing his thoughts while welcoming all representatives from government departments, municipal officials in the district and non-governmental organisations who acknowledged and attended the importance of the event.

ENDS