Gender-based violence plan lacks funds

Although the government has made promises, groups are decrying the lack of resources to address the scourge

- Aarti Bhana

Inadequate government funding for the national strategic plan on gender-based violence and femicide is setting South Africa back in grappling with the crisis.

The plan, developed in 2020 by the government and civil society organisations, sets out a strategic framework to guide the national response to the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) in South Africa, which has once again come under the spotlight after 30-year-old Olorato Mongale was murdered last month, allegedly by a man she met for a date.

"[The plan] is a comprehensive strategy to deal with gender-based violence and my feeling is we should be putting our energy, our advocacy, our legal work and our responses into getting it to work," said Bronwyn Pithy, an advocate at the Women's Centre for Legal Studies.

"We should be pressurising governments to get the NSP [national strategic plan] to work and be funded and properly done."

In his State of the Nation address in February, President Cyril Ramaphosa said about R21 billion had been dedicated over the medium term to implement the six pillars of the plan, including the economic empowerment of women.

But Pithy said the government's response to the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide was not enough.