JOHANNESBURG - The newly appointed National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) has six months to develop an action plan.
That is according to Minister in the Presidency for Women, Sindisiwe Chikunga, as government reaffirmed its commitment to GBVF.
The Council has begun its work, with a mandate to coordinate the country’s response to gender-based violence.
Its priorities include accountability, prevention, survivor support and stronger coordination across sectors.
"That action plan will come from the National Strategic Plan, which has got six pillars... And that action plan will have to be carried and it will have timelines..."
The Council includes representatives from government, women’s rights organisations, survivor advocacy groups, community-based organisations, faith-based organisations, disability rights organisations, youth formations, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) advocacy structures, research and academic institutions, traditional and community leadership formations, business, labour and development partners.
According to Chikunga that Council stands as a permanent, statutory and multisectoral mechanism through which South Africa will coordinate, monitor and strengthen its response to GBVF.
Chikunga said the action plan must be communicated to every stakeholder, and the council must work within multi-sectoral structures.
"So, there is already something that is in law that must be done. And we have people that on a day-to-day basis will wake up in the morning as secretariat and say, how are we going to deal with the issue of gender-based violence and femicide and what it is that we need to do?"
"Of course, they will not work alone. They will still have to work with everybody, with the public sector, with private sector, with academia, with everybody. But we now have people that will be paid and will be held accountable and will write reports on nothing else but on gender-based violence," she added.