The Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Summit will get underway in Johannesburg on Tuesday. Police Minister, Bheki Cele say the DNA backlog at Forensic Science Laboratories now stands at 71,000, down from the 241 000 reported earlier this year.
The minister had earlier announced that the backlog would be cleared by October.
Cele says the department has made some progress in addressing the crippling backlog and now aims to remove it by January next year.
Cele also says 16 contracts that lapsed were re-instituted and more manpower has been established in the Western Cape.
He was addressing the media in Pretoria.
“Sixteen contracts were allowed to collapse. All those contracts are in place and all those contracts are monitored on a month to month basis to such an extent that when there are 6 months left for the collapse of the contracts, you begin to work on their renewal so that we never go back to the situation where these contracts will collapse. “The top 30 stations that have a high level of abuse and rape are given extra money, around 100 million for those stations, so that they are able to short circuit the way of responding,” he says.
GBVFIndaba opens in Sandton: Mbalenhle Mthethwa reports
‘Critical challenge’
The engagement took stock of the commitments that were made by various departments and civil society organisations last year to tackle GBVF. Various departments also committed to tackling the scourge
Departments and various organisations gave feedback on the implementation of some of the pillars in the National Strategic Plan to tackle GBVF. The first pillar relates to accountability, coordination and leadership.
The Communications and Digital Technologies Department said it had implemented various programmes to tackle gender-based violence.
Deputy Director-General for Governance Thulisile Manzini says, “As a department, we have implemented programmes with regard to GBV. There is also a need to expand these programmes to include matters of domestic violence and in this regard, we may need to review the financial resources available to do so.”
“And it’s something we have an opportunity for now as we are also busy with our APP to make sure that this is incorporated especially the financial part. And the implementing entities in the portfolio can play a role in assisting us to raise awareness on the existence of the Bill amongst citizens.”
In August, Minister of Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane pleaded with South Africa to end GBVF:
