People Against Women’s Abuse (POWA) says survivors of gender-based violence(GBV) will benefit immensely from the revival of the organisation’s legal department.
POWA’s legal department was closed due to a lack of funds, but will now resume its services, which are free of charge.
POWA says it believes gender-based violence interventions should be funded at a similar capacity as the COVID-19 pandemic.
POWA’s Legal adviser Disemelo Tlali says, “As far as the legal department is concerned, the legal department doesn’t get anything. As POWA, we only get funding from the Social Development Department for our social make-up. So we don’t have money coming from government as far as our department is concerned. We only have one funder at the legal department – a foundation which has made it possible for the department to be revived.”
Tracy Going on POWA’s drive to end all forms of violence against women, children:
GBV arrests
More than 50 suspects have been arrested for GBV, including rape, in Mpumalanga since the beginning of the month.
That was revealed by the Provincial Police Commissioner Senamakaleng Manamela in the wake of the murder of a pregnant woman whose body was discovered in the Crocodile River at Kanyamazane outside Mbombela.
26-year-old Patricia Juliet Ndlovu’s body was discovered last Sunday.
Ndlovu was last seen a day before her body was discovered. She had a gunshot wound.
Manamela has expressed concern about the increasing number of gender-based violence incidents in the province.
“Since the beginning of this month, we have already arrested 53 suspects regarding the issue of rape and sexual offences. All these cases, some are in custody and some are out on bail and we are taking these matters very seriously and since we are in Women’s Month, we can’t allow that.”
