The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure has released six State-owned properties to provide shelter and empowerment services for domestic abuse victims in the Western Cape.
The development follows the handover of the first four such properties in Pretoria last year.
The provision of shelter is part of government’s efforts to respond to gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), underpinned and guided by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Emergency Response Plan (Five-Point Plan) and the Khawuleza District Model. These plans are aimed at curbing GBVF and speeding up service delivery, respectively.
At a briefing in Cape Town on Wednesday, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille and Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu announced that an additional six properties are being made available in the Western Cape, including two in Gauteng, to be used as safe havens for women and children who are victims of abuse.
The six properties in the Western Cape are in the Garden Route, West Coast and Central Karoo Districts, while the two Gauteng properties are in the City of Johannesburg Metro Region.
De Lille said the aim is to avail safe houses across the country to help abused women.
The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) will be responsible for the maintenance and repairs of the buildings, while Social Development will provide empowerment programmes to help the women at the shelters.
Services to be rendered at the centres will include psychosocial support, healthcare and legal services. The centres will be open and accessible 24 hours, seven days a week.
“Hopefully by providing all these safe houses, as government, we can go beyond just talking about a rapid response to GBV. Knowing the situations that women [find themselves in] in these relationships, we are able to at least come forward and offer [shelter],” De Lille said.
Staffing the shelters
To date, Public Works and Infrastructure has recruited a total of 319 Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers, including 254 participants in 19 district municipalities and 65 participants in five metros.
“The participants have been contracted by 37 NPOs across the country, which have provided the EPWP workers with victim empowerment training before deployment, to ensure they are better equipped to help survivors of GBV,” De Lille said.
Services rendered by the workers include GBVF community dialogues, counselling services to survivors and their families, referrals for professional work services, health services and law enforcement (referrals to the police).
State buildings to advertise GBV messages
Meanwhile, De Lille said her department will put up billboards on all State-owned buildings advertising GBV prevention and response messages.
“We have put up the first billboard together with [Minister] Zulu in Pretoria last year. Two weeks from now, we will put on up at Manenberg Police Station, where a local artist will [design] anti-GBV art,” De Lille said.
Moving beyond the pain
Zulu said empowering victims to take care of themselves was a crucial move.
“It is our responsibility to empower them by creating a conducive environment for them, so that they can make the decision to [leave]. During the 365 days of Activism for no Violence against Women and Children, which has been declared, we need to take concrete action.
“We have people who walk around wounded, and as the department, we believe that we must get to the root cause of it,” Zulu said.
She called on other departments to play their part in dealing with the issues of violence against women and children. She said the use of GBV billboards sent an important message to the whole of society.
“As the department, we have a mandate to provide a lifeline to survivors when they take a bold decision to leave abusive relationships,” Zulu said.
The Minister also commended De Lille’s commitment to work jointly with Social Development to identify other facilities that can be utilised by provincial departments and civil society organisations in other provinces to render victim empowerment services throughout the country.
“We have committed to work with speed to ensure that these centres become operational before the end of the coming financial year, in recognition of the seriousness and urgency of the need to address GBVF. We are investing in expanding victim empowerment services across South Africa,” Zulu said. – SAnews.gov.za
