Province budgets R60m to address and prevent GBV

THE Province has this year budgeted R60.4 million to address and prevent gender-based violence (GBV), according to Premier Alan Winde.

This figure is R59.9 million up from the R557 841 budgeted in the 2018/19 financial year and R14.2 million more than the 2019/20 financial year.

Winde revealed these figures in a written reply to a question that had been posed by ANC provincial social development spokesperson Gladys Bakubaku-Vos.

Bakubaku-Vos wanted to know what measures the province had in place to stop GBV. She said: “What are the details and can I have a breakdown of the provincial government’s expenditure on measures aimed at preventing and addressing GBV from 2019 to date?”

Winde said: “The departments of social development and community safety both have programmes in place to prevent and fight against GBV and femicide in the province.

“The department of social development has the victim empowerment programme that funds GBV educational workshops and awareness-raising activities in high-risk areas. Other programmes include the child-care and protection programme, the older persons programme and services to families programme.”

In March, Social Development MEC Sharna Fernandez launched the Marigold Safehouse in the central Karoo. This was lauded as the first of six shelters that the department plans on opening this year with the support of its non-profit organisation partners.

Regarding the community safety department’s programmes, Winde said that they had prioritised interventions such as collaborating with the police to identify systemic issues at a station level.

According to Winde, the province’s court watching brief unit will be conducting station visits to the five priority stations where area-based teams are established to determine reasons why matters are being struck off the roll through insight into the court dockets.

Another intervention includes investigating service delivery complaints against the police by encouraging victims and survivors of GBV to lodge complaints with the provincial police ombudsman if they are dissatisfied with the service they received from the SAPS.