GBV activists applaud Ramaphosa's signing of bill on gender-based violence and femicide

Gender-based violence (GBV) organisations have welcomed the “historical” signing of a new bill to combat violence against women and hope the legislation is implemented without any corruption.

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday signed the National Council for Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Bill in terms of which a council will be established to implement a national strategic plan to combat GBV and femicide.

The bill follows a resolution at the first Presidential Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide in 2018. Ramaphosa said he was inspired by GBV victims he met when he received their memorandum during the #TotalShutdown march in August 2018.

“This statutory body will co-ordinate and provide strategic leadership to the fight against GBV and femicide. It will be multisectoral, drawing on the expertise of all stakeholders, including civil society, labour and business,” Ramaphosa said.

The council is multisectoral, which is a good thing because government on its own cannot implement the strategy plan. The plan is generous to say that 51% of the council will be coming from the civil sector. 

—  Thoko Budaza, People Opposing Women Abuse  

The bill will facilitate the co-ordination of the council which will have 51% civil society representation to address challenges related to GBV. This includes setting short, medium and long-term priorities, facilitating research on issues related to preventing and responding to GBV, and establishing and maintaining a platform for sharing information and practices on preventing and responding to GBV.

Director of the organisation Rise Up Against Gender-Based Violence, Vanita Daniels, said they welcomed the bill.

“I am happy that the president has signed the bill, which we have been waiting for. We wanted a legislative framework for co-ordinated GBV machinery in the country. So, this is a good step,” she told TimesLIVE.

People Opposing Women Abuse (Powa) are pleased that the bill allows for the majority of the GBV sector to sit on the council so the fight against violence against women would not be “skewed towards government”, said executive director Thoko Budaza.

“This council is the one that is going to implement the national strategic plan on GBV and femicide. The council is multisectoral, which is a good thing because government on its own cannot implement the strategy plan. The plan is generous to say that 51% of the council will be coming from the civil sector, meaning it is coming from us. This is good because it means we will be equal in the fight against GBV. That is one thing that I welcome.”

In terms of the bill, funds for the council will consist of money appropriated and earmarked by parliament for the council, donations, trust funds vested in the council and interest accumulated from investments.

Budaza said she hoped policies would be in place to deal with the challenges of funding required for resources to fight GBV.

“We continue to hope for a non-corrupt council. It is important that the council is effective and has no corruption and cares about gender-based violence, is innovative and inclusive of even survivors of GBV. We welcome the bill and hope the council will be appointed swiftly. This bill looks good on paper — we hope it is implemented the same way,” she said.

The Free Market Foundation (FMF), however, deemed the council a waste of state and taxpayer resources.

Ramaphosa had become known for setting up task teams and boards rather than “simply solving given issues”, said FMF head of policy Martin van Staden.

“The new council that this bill establishes is a large-scale version of that. The bill does nothing to actually address gender-based violence. It does not free up prosecutorial capacity or help the police focus on this issue. It merely creates another government planning and advisory board that will suck up scarce taxpayer resources,” Van Staden said.