Mmamoloko Kubayi, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, underlined the government's commitment to combatting gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) in South Africa.
The minister spoke at the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation's Women Empowerment 365 Days Against Gender-Based Violence discourse in Soweto on Tuesday, January 28.
"As part of the criminal justice system, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is working tirelessly to ensure that legal and law enforcement services work on enforcing domestic violence laws and strengthening legal frameworks," Kubayi said.
She added that the department is collaborating closely with civil society to ensure that the National Strategic Plan to End Gender-Based Violence and Femicide achieves its objectives.
"In line with the GBVF Strategic Plan, the department therefore intends to increase the national footprint of sexual offences courts, particularly in rural communities. The department intends to upgrade 100 district courts to offer services that are custom-made for survivors of domestic violence."
Kubayi went on to say that the department will publish the very first Femicide Watch in Africa repository.
"This is a national repository of GBV-related femicide cases designed to provide the numerical analysis, the profile and the severity of the pandemic of femicide in our country, so as to assist government and our partners in establishing informed programmatic interventions," she added.
In the courts, Kubayi went on to say that the department has launched a 100-day challenge to reduce and eventually eliminate backlog cases of domestic violence, sexual offences, maintenance and divorce matters.
"In 100 Days, selected courts with high volume of backlog GBV cases will be challenged to come up with creative and sustainable innovations to reduce the turnaround times in the finalisation of these cases and also to address the existing case backlogs," the minister said.
IOL