Activists call for more focus on gender-based violence

Activists and civil society groups are urging the government to halt the implementation of the National Council on Gender Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Acts and focus on amending it to align with the 2018 declaration and the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.

- Thando Nondywana

The GBVF Acts refer to three separate Acts, the Criminal and Related Matters Amendment Act, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act and the Domestic Violence Amendment Act.

Activists argue that while the Acts were a step in the right direction for the country's response to GBVF, the Acts in their current form were inadequate and failed to address the core challenges they seek to resolve.

Executive director of the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (Isla) Sibongile Ndashe said the current framework lacked accountability and had become a hollow structure with no real functionality.