Activist, Sibongile Ndashe says little has been done to address the scourge of gender based violence in South Africa.
Ndashe was speaking ahead of a two-day Gender Based Violence and Femicide Summit taking place in Midrand, north of Johannesburg.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is hosting the summit, aimed at finding ways of tackling violence against women.
Women’s groups and civil society organisations have long-called for government’s urgent intervention on the matter.
Ndashe says much of the summit’s work was hindered by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The national strategic plan came in 2020, just right at the beginning of COVID-19. So in many ways, it was overshadowed by what was happening. We are now at two and a half years of that national strategic plan. We don’t seem to have made a lot of difference in terms of responding to some of the causes. What the national strategic plan tells us is that with this road map and the six pillars, if we are to implement them correctly then hopefully we will emerge with a solution,” adds Ndashe.
Meanwhile, Namibia’s First Lady, Monica Geingos has called for a continental approach to fighting Gender Based Violence and Femicide.
Over 800 women and close to 250 children were killed in South Africa from April to June this year.
Geingos says the world has become unsafe for women and children.
“I don’t think anywhere is safe for women and children to live, Namibia is no exception. There definitely are pockets of places where it’s not safe, in our own homes, in churches, in schools, in the workplace, women are not safe across the world. So, I think if we get it right in Namibia, we get it right in South Africa and in Nigeria, we need to get it right everywhere, so that women everywhere are safe,” explains Geingos.
Below is the live stream:
