Programme Director Ms Keitumetse Fatimata Moutloatse, 
Black Women Caucus
Ms Gugu Motlanthe, Executive Trustee of the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation
Father Xolani Diwati, Former dean of Johannesburg
Good morning

Malibongwe!
Wa thintha imboko! Wathintha abafazi!
Thank you for inviting me to join you this morning for this important and necessary dialogue. The pain and suffering that has been caused by the scourge of Gender Based Violence (GBV) makes these kinds of dialogues difficult but necessary.

As a woman or a girl child in this country you can be directly affected by GBV and femicide regardless of your socio-economic class in society or the position you hold. Our social and family constructions are largely engrained in patriarchal practices, toxic masculinities, and gendered power inequalities, which often result in family dysfunctions, solo parenting, gender-based violence and killings.

A report released by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) on gender-based violence and femicide found that “33.1% of all women aged 18 years and older had experienced physical violence in their lifetime. This translates to an estimated 7 310 389 women who have experienced physical violence in their lifetime. Lifetime physical violence was significantly higher among Black African women…”

This means at least 3 women out of ten women aged 18 years and older you meet have experienced GBV. This is not acceptable, and we should not accept as a society.

The stories of women getting killed by their partners have become so prevalent on Social Media platforms to the extent that when we read them, we no longer get shocked or outraged, we just read and move on.

It is for this reason that I welcome this dialogue because it serves as a reminder to all of us that Gender Based Violence is unacceptable and that remaining silent is not an option. We all have a responsibility to speak out, to report it wherever it rears its ugly head in our homes, our neighbour and even in the homes of our beloved relatives.

The question that everyone of us is asking is: why is GBV in South Africa so prevalent?

What is it about South Africans that makes us so violent against one another?

The HSRC report also noted that “South Africa remains a society profoundly marked by violence and continues to grapple with the enduring effects of decades of institutionalised racism, sexism, exclusion, structural violence, and other factors that have persistently undermined human development and positive social cohesion. The country contends with some of the globe’s highest homicide data and some suggest the country has one of the highest rates of GBV, encompassing intimate femicide, rape, and intimate partner violence (IPV).”

What this report is telling us is that the effects of violence perpetrated on black people by the apartheid government are still being felt today. This makes the effort to rebuild this country under democracy all the important because amongst other things it is essential for the healing process of our country.

To search for a cause of the high prevalence of GBV is not an attempt to make excuses for the perpetrators but it is so that when we can think of solutions, and to have a better understanding of the problem we are trying to solve.

If we do not understand the problem we are dealing with we will devise wrong solutions and get frustrated when we do not attain the desired results. We believe that this approach will help us to strengthen our preventative approach to GBV.

For prevention on GBV is essential because post crime intervention only comes in when a life has been lost, when a person has been maimed or when a partner has been driven to irreversible psychological damage.

As part of criminal justice system, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is working tirelessly to ensure that legal and law enforcement services work on enforcing domestic violence laws and strengthening legal frameworks.

However, it will serve our country better to strengthen preventative measures against intimate femicide, rape, and intimate partner violence (IPV) which requires us to have a better understanding of the problem.

Studies have also confirmed that exposure to childhood trauma plays a pivotal role in both the victimisation of women and the perpetration by men, and that women exposed to domestic violence as children have a higher prevalence of victimisation.

The HSRC report also tells that the factors that were found to be linked to a higher prevalence of IPV among women included the number of lifetime sexual partners, substance abuse, poor mental health, childhood trauma, and inequitable gender norms.

For men, factors influencing IPV perpetration include hazardous alcohol consumption, having engaged in transactional sex, poor mental health, childhood trauma, and inequitable attitudes toward gender relations, with food insecurity also playing a role.

Central to this diagnosis is the state of the households in which children are raised and the communities in which they form social connections. Viewed from this perspective, the solution to Gender-Based violence lies in the whole of society approach in which all stakeholders play a role in building better communities, healthy and safe households and government provides enough resources to support victims and law enforcement agencies.  

It is for this reason that we would like to make a call upon all of us as South Africans and non-nationals living in this country to build families founded on values of positive masculinity, gender equality, good parenting, and respect for the rule of law. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development remains committed to establishing a criminal justice system that curbs secondary victimisation and attrition, particularly in cases of gender-based violence. Survivors of GBV desire not only to see, but feel that justice was done.

Our country adopted The Gender-Based Violence and Femicide National Strategic Plan (GBVF NSP) that sets out to provide a cohesive strategic framework to guide the national response to the hyper endemic GBVF crisis in which South Africa finds itself.

This is the framework which now guides all the efforts to fight GBV and femicide in our country and outlines a role for each stakeholder in our society.  

For our part as the Department of Justice & Constitutional Development we are committed to the realization of the aspirations of the National Strategic Plan to End Gender-based Violence and Femicide working closely with the civil society organizations.

To this end we changed our policies and our programmes to be geared towards eliminating gender-based violence.

With the alarming figures of sexual violence in the country and the increasing number of child pregnancies, our courts must offer support services that are tailor-made for the survivors of sex crime.

In line with the GBVF Strategic Plan, the Department therefore intends to increase the national footprint of sexual offences courts, particularly in rural communities.

As reported by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the conviction rate in sex crimes reported directly to the Thuthuzela Care Centres now stands at 78%, which is above the planned annual target of 70%. In the previous financial year, 221 life imprisonment sentences were imposed on all sex crimes finalised with a verdict and processed through the Thuthuzela Care Centres.

In line with the newly-developed National Strategy on Support Services for Domestic Violence Survivors, the Department intends to upgrade 100 district courts to offer services that are custom-made for survivors of domestic violence.

The law requires all cases of domestic violence to be heard in camera, and it further prohibits the disclosure of the particulars of the parties so as to curb secondary victimisation and its harmful consequences.

In collaboration with the judiciary, the plan is to have all applications attended to everyday. Where there is prima facie evidence, every applicant should leave the courthouse with a protection order on the day of application.

In line with the GBVF National Strategic Plan, we intend to publish the very first Femicide Watch in Africa. This is a national repository of GBV-related femicide cases designed to provide the numerical analysis, the profile and the severity of the pandemic of femicide in our country so as to assist government and our partners in establishing informed programmatic interventions.

In line with the aspirations of the Presidential Summit Declaration against Gender-based Violence and Femicide of 2019 and its National Strategic Plan, the Department will introduce 100 Days Challenge to reduce and ultimately eliminate backlog cases of domestic violence, sexual offences, maintenance and divorce matters.

In 100 Days, selected courts with high volume of backlog GBV cases will be challenged to come up with creative and sustainable innovations to reduce the turnaround times in the finalization of these cases and also to address the existing case backlogs.  

In addition to these initiatives we need the following complementary initiatives to fight GBV and femicide as recommended by the HSRC report:

• social, health and mental health services to coordinate support services and focus on enhancing interventions for substance use, mental health, and gender-affirming care. 
• child protection and family support to focus on early detection of childhood exposure to violence, provide family support programmes, and address intergenerational trauma. 
• educational and community-based interventions to advance gender equality education, promote healthy relationships, and conduct community education workshops.

Your discussions today must help our country to find ways in which we can advance the work of fighting GBV and femicide.

We believe that working together as a society we can defeat the scourge of gender-based violence.

We believe that we can a achieve a South Africa free from gender-based violence directed at women, children and LGBTQIA+ persons.

Let me thank you again for inviting me to this important dialogue and I wish you well in your deliberations. I look forward to the outcomes of your dialogue.

I thank you