Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi says the province is committing additional funding and personnel to strengthen support for survivors of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF).
Speaking in Johannesburg, Lesufi says the province will strengthen 131 Green Doors and support 115 NGOs.
He says more than 1 000 GBVF brigades will also receive additional support and be deployed across 122 police precincts identified for proactive monitoring. The measures form part of Gauteng’s response to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s directives following the recent killings of women in and around Ekurhuleni
‘We’ve also identified support for social workers and we’ll add 56 in the Department of Social Development specifically to provide support to the task that we’ve identified. It is within this context that we believe as the provincial government in Gauteng assisted by national government as well as all municipalities, we are on track to execute what the president has directed to us.”
Meanwhile, Gauteng Provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Tommy Mthombeni says police have resolved three of the 12 cases of women whose bodies were found across Ekurhuleni.
Speaking in Johannesburg, Mthombeni says investigators have also identified persons of interest in three other cases in Kempton Park and are pursuing them. He says three of the 12 recovered bodies remain unidentified, while police have deployed specialised investigators, forensic experts and an investigative psychologist to the cases.
Mthombeni says a R400 000 reward remains available for information that could help police resolve the outstanding cases.
This is the work of the first prone approach which is the investigation. Added to that, I must just indicate that we have put in support of the team people who specialise in a specific field like I always say is the investigative psychologist and also people who deal with the DNA or forensic science laboratory.”
