New laws will help fight GBV

Digital court orders on way

Women will soon be able to apply for a domestic violence court order digitally and the reporting of gender based violence matters will be at their fingertips as it is only a matter of time before the new law system is rolled out.

Not only that, but witnesses who fail to report cases of the elderly and children being abused will also be charged, including those who bridge economic criminal law against the pension grants of the elderly.

Minister of justice and correctional services Ronald Lamola informed residents of the new law at a GBV and femicide imbizo in Indwe on Friday to address the scourge plaguing Emalahleni, which is one of the hot-spot areas.

“We are bringing in laws that are going to make you restore your behaviour, remove economic abuse, elder abuse, domestic violence, sexual harassment and spiritual abuse.

“You will apply for a domestic court order digitally, no matter where you are. This means there will no longer be bystanders who see a child, an elderly woman being abused and keep quiet and not report the matter to the police,” Lamola said.

The minister said they did not want the younger generation victimising pensioners. He said there would be no spiritual leaders making people drink petrol, or manipulating religion to justify abusing the victim.

“We all respect the Bible, let us use it appropriately,” he said.

Lamola said he was happy to discuss the issue of gender based violence, and community members needed to gather together to address it.

To the residents who voiced their concerns about bail being granted and criminals not being convicted but returned to the community, the minister said President Cyril Ramaphosa had brought in a new law so it would not be easy for someone who committed a domestic violence offence to be granted bail. “It is a matter of time for the law to be implemented.”

Lamola said the digital court application was a part of the national strategic plan against gender based violence and femicide. This had influenced the ammendment of the three laws which affected the way the government was fighting against gender based violence, femicide and sexual offences.

He said there were more laws to be introduced in the criminal system.

“Community members must prepare to also change as they are the ones who know the culprits behind the crimes. You cannot just stand aside when you know that there are young people who are being victimised. People are complaining about the DNA issue. With the police minister, we have appointed a task team to observe and fast-track the issue of DNA. We can see that there is a significant improvement. This is why you have heard of those who were sentenced in different places.“

One of the reasons criminals returned to communities, Lamola said, was because residents were not willing to step forward as witnesses in court.

“The law requires those who witness a violation to assist the court. Some of you do not want to be witnesses but expect people to be sentenced. We plead with you to come forward. If you are afraid, the justice department can assist you to be a witness anonymously, for people not to be known through our witness protection, where the prosecutor will assist you for us to fight these crimes. Sexual offences and domestic violence perpetrators are getting convicted. As we are here, there is a 76% conviction rate.”

He said families should affirm their love for a boy child so that they grew up with affection.

“Some of them commit crime because they affirm themselves through aggression and violence. This is a movement we should start. It will kill domestic violence and rape before it gets out of control. We can only plant the seed of love at a young age.”

Meanwhile, Emalahleni mayor Nontombizanele Koni said the municipality was working with the justice department, police and department of social development to mitigate the crimes.

Koni said years back, Indwe had victims who were violated and trafficked to other places, but the police had played a great role in addressing the matter.

One of the shocking recent incidents, she said, was the murder of an elderly woman in Luphaphasi whose head was seen being carried by a dog to one of the houses. Her corpse was found with missing body parts.

Koni said Ezingqolweni was affected the most by the murder of women, with more than 12 cases opened.

“In a recent incident in Ezingqolweni a woman was shot dead by young people.

“In Zwartwater a woman took the law into her own hands after young men attempted to rape her daughter. In Tsembeyi a man was killed trying to defend a child who was being raped.

“These are the types of incidents we are dealing with. In Machubeni an old man raped six young children.”

The mayor said they were happy some of the criminals had received longer sentences.

“Those who murdered women in Tsembeyi were sentenced. The man who raped six children in Maqhashu was sentenced. We should be dealing with service delivery, inequality and unemployment issues but we have to take our time to focus on gender based violence issues.”

She said the community became angry when the police were not arresting anyone.

“I was also crying after being chased away from Ezingqolweni. We would like to thank the late Chief Ngangomhlaba Mathanzima.

“The people had immense anger and they took it out on us. Some of the people who would not allow us to enter are some of those who were arrested.”