By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says the first summit, the participants collectively made a firm commitment to the nation to undertake a comprehensive, effective and united response to gender-based violence and femicide.
The president convened the second summit, which aims to reflect on the work undertaken since the first Presidential Summit on GBVF in November 2018, and also report on key successes and challenges, and outline clear strategies to overcome them.
Ramaphosa addressed the Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) and gave clarity on the way forward.
This after earlier sessions of the summit was disrupted, rightfully so, by activists and civil society groups demanding immediate answers.
“We agreed to develop a National Strategic Plan (NSP) to guide our national response, to coordinate the various sectors involved in the fight against GBV, to strengthen the state’s response, and to align the efforts of government, the private sector and civil society.
These included a number of interventions to deal with the scourge of GBVF in the country, which started with the development of a GBVF Emergency Response Action Plan in 2019.
“I requested Parliament’s Presiding Officers to call a special joint sitting of both houses of Parliament to announce the action plan. The plan was embraced by members of Parliament representing all political parties.
“This was a significant moment in that GBVF was seen as a non-partisan matter on which all political parties demonstrated their preparedness to act together to address this scourge. This was followed by the release in April 2020 of the National Strategic Plan, which had been carefully drawn up together with civil society, “Ramaphosa highlighted.
Ramaphosa said all ministries within the department were instructed to fund the National Strategic Plan.
He said approximately R1.6 billion was extracted from various departments. In a way, we [told government departments to] top-slice your budget and fund this effort”.
“Now that we have a proper council in terms of the law, the National Treasury will be able to set aside, on a seperate basis, the money that will fund this fight”.
He said government is in the early stage of implementation and will be “working to institutionalise it across all of government”.
The President told delegates attending that they must look at what is working, what is not, and what is needed to make a difference.
“This is an accountability summit. This second Presidential Summit is for us to assess progress in fulfilling the commitments we made at the first Summit in 2018 and in implementing the National Strategic Plan (NSP on GBVF).
“What we have stressed throughout this process is the importance of a collaborative and coordinated approach towards combating gender-based violence and femicide. We need to plan together, implement together and account together.
“The actions we take now will determine whether this crime forever remains a feature of our national life, or whether we can say we are the generation that ended it, “Ramaphosa said.