Everyone must be held accountable for a spike in cases of women abuse, according to Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, who told the second Presidential Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) on Wednesday that men should do the right thing and protect women.
“If we were to ask every woman and man in this room [about] the pain they feel on a daily basis, when they wake up in the morning or walk down the streets, all of us walk in pain. We are not perfect, but we wake up in the morning, we show up and do the best that we can,” said Zulu.
Zulu said over 900 non-profit organisations (NPO) are registered as rendering victim empowerment services and are supported by 1 238 NPOs that are registered as providing family services.
Addressing the delegates at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand on Tuesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa challenged the delegates to focus on action and results toward ending violence against women and children, saying it should be society’s first priority to end violence against women and children.
“We agreed to develop a National Strategic Plan to guide our national response to coordinate the various sectors involved in the fight against GBVF, to strengthen the state’s response and to align the efforts of government, the private sector and civil society,” said Ramaphosa.
He requested parliament’s presiding officers to call a special joint sitting of both houses of parliament to announce the action plan. The plan was embraced by members of parliament representing all political parties.
“This was a significant moment in that GBVF was seen as a non-partisan matter on which all political parties demonstrated their preparedness to act together to address this scourge. This was followed by the release in April 2020 of the National Strategic Plan, which had been carefully drawn up together with civil society.”
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