Page 30 - SCAT GBV Report - Addressing Gender-Based Violence - 2021

If we refer the case to the social worker, we want things to happen. Counselling shouldn’t come after three weeks. Immediate action should be taken. Stakeholders delaying their process makes our work very hard. Jeanette Mqomo, coordinator, KSDF.
The police’s unwillingness to assist GBV survivors, arrest perpetrators, and exercise due diligence in their investigations, characterises the inadequacy of their response. The negative attitude of SAPS officials discourages reporting and can lead to cases being withdrawn due to secondary victimisation (SAHRC, 2018). This is acutely debilitating, because the police are frequently the first responders following incidents of gender violence and abuse. This situation is compounded by under- resourced courts, where the processing of applications for protection orders is slow and onerous (SAHRC, 2018) – together with limited services in rural areas, where centres for victims of sexual abuse are lacking and shelters are massively under- supplied.23 These systemic impediments to justice are deepened when people have to travel long distances, often without sufficient funds, in order to access the criminal justice system or legal assistance.
If you go to SAPS, they are always looking for something – bruises or whatsoever – and that is the thing I don’t want them to do. I want them to hear people’s stories, because there is always a story.
Sophia Booysen, KSDF.
Especially with the police, we see the norm is that whenever a woman reports a case of abuse, the police in most cases tell the woman that the issues they have with the husband or the partner, they need to sort it out. Emmerentia Goliath, coordinator, WRDC.
When we observe the cases of GBV, the police are sometimes not knowing what to do in situations – telling people to come and lay charges tomorrow, while the fight is on today.
Jonathan van der Westhuizen, coordinator, SALDU.
Because rural populations are on the economic periphery, they depend heavily on government services to meet basic needs. This is exacerbated in communities with high levels of unemployment and other social deprivations. In such environs, LDAs have to pressure for the materialisation of democracy itself.
Every department plays a role in a human being’s life. It doesn’t matter where you stay. To get this message out to people in rural areas, is to get the departments there to render services ... How many women are going through GBV that feel they are cornered, they can’t speak out, they can’t report, they can’t do nothing because there is not even a police station in some of these areas? When we went into democracy it was said that if the people cannot reach the point where the services are rendered, the officials and the services must go out and render these important services to those people. But still today, in the deep rural areas, there is no democracy because there are no services.
Sophia Booysen, KSDF.
Weak state capacity, under-resourcing, and poor infrastructure are acutely felt in GBV cases, as survivors require accompaniment and support over time. The overcrowding of facilities leads to further under-servicing, as people turn away from the possibility of their needs being met.
23. In terms of the DVA, the Department of Social Development (DSD) is under no legal obligation to make shelters available, resulting in an approach to shelter funding that is erratic and inconsistent (Vetten, Le & Leisegang, 2010). Twenty-four hour centres for victims of sexual offences are called ‘Thuthuzela Care Centres’ (TCCs).
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“Finish this Elephant”: Rural Community Organisations’ Strategic Approaches to Addressing GBV