The National Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Shamila Batohi, has conceded that the criminal justice system is not able to solve the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa.
Batohi has called for a multi-sectoral approach to what President Cyril Ramaphosa has labelled a pandemic.
She was speaking at the second Presidential Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Summit in Midrand in the north of Johannesburg.
Multiple stakeholders are attending the two-day summit that aims to find solutions to the scourge.
This in response to mounting calls from women’s groups and civil society organisations for government’s urgent intervention.
Over 800 women and close to 250 children were killed in South Africa from April to June this year.
Batohi says it’s time to look beyond the criminal justice system.
“I also want to make it very clear that the criminal justice system is not going to solve this problem. We’ve got to look beyond the criminal justice system, we’ve got to look at our communities, we’ve got to look at why do men in society, South African men, commit these offences, not just against women but against children as well.”
“We’ve got to look at what to do outside of the criminal justice system to ensure that these crimes are not committed. It’s a scourge. It’s a pandemic in our country. Everyone correctly looks to the criminal justice system and we’re really trying our best to do what we can, but the solutions don’t lie in the criminal justice system,” adds Batohi.
Below is the live stream:
