Mazibuko encourages NGOs to work with the government to end the scourge of GBV in our society.
HOUGHTON – Stakeholders within the Criminal Justice System and NGO's agree to work together in a fight against GBV.
Provincial government departments within the Criminal Justice System (CJS), the Department of Health and non-governmental organisations have agreed that working together as a unit can bring about lasting solutions on the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) in society.
This emerged during a Criminal Justice System summit held at Glenhove Conference Centre by the Department of Community Safety under the theme, Enough is Enough, to find ways that can help bring the scourge of gender-based violence to its knees.
Speaking during the opening of the summit, the MEC for Community Safety in the province, Faith Mazibuko said the aim of the summit was to identify gaps within the value chain and enforce an integrated approach in the handling of gender-based violence cases, from reporting to convictions of perpetrators.
She added that the summit, that was part of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children, was meant to seek and identify ways to fight the scourge and to action the necessary steps towards strengthening the prevention and response measures to address gender-based violence in the province.
Dr Paul Morule of the Department of Health said one of the challenges that made it difficult to put perpetrators of gender-based violence behind bars was because of victims who don’t go to health centres to report the crime or fabricate a story to protect perpetrators.
“The victims of GBV often do not go public about abuse. A significant number of victims are treated under false pretext. Statistics have revealed that there is an increasing trend of sexual assault, poisoning and incidents related to domestic abuse. Some of these incidents are most likely to happen near places where people drink, like night clubs and taverns,” Morule added.
Mazibuko said the fight against gender-based violence should become a daily habit in which members of society, churches, non-governmental organisations and government should embark on 365 days a year.
She called upon all those with unresolved cases of gender-based violence to do follow-ups on their cases and bring them to the attention of the authorities if nothing was done to resolve them.
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