Deputy Minister, we have heard you saying that your national strategic plan will be rolled out by the end of October and we are certainly looking forward to seeing that implementation plan come to life and assist the people - women, children and all the vulnerable people in South Africa. However, Deputy Minister, the failure by your department to allocate adequate resources for this purpose places the responsibility on women to speak out against gender-based violence. While the government seems to be developing plans, it appears to be lacking the willpower and ability to implement these plans. How serious is your department in combating gender-based violence if there is no adequate budget or resources for that purpose? Thank you.
The DEPUTY MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY FOR WOMEN, YOUTH AND PERSONS
WITH DISABILITIES: Hon Deputy Chairperson and hon members - I think
- in terms of our economic outlook as of today, if Treasury has identified up to R1,6 billion, we think that is a substantial amount during this term for us to begin to work effectively on this. As I have indicated, that's the money which was already allocated. It was not in the Department of Women, but in different departments; and was earmarked for gender-based violence. What I can commit to is that, there is a political will and commitment to leave nothing to chance.
The President has gone to the extent of saying, even those cases which were dropped and not taken forward for prosecution, should be looked at and reinstated because, in some instances, they were dropped because of problems in the system, either with the police or the magistrate court. There were too many bottlenecks. Irrespective of the legislation we have, people were still not moving swiftly to apprehend perpetrators and prosecute them. So, I do believe there is a commitment and seriousness. I don't think once this national strategic plan is finalised and adopted, any department will then relax and not be part of the implementation of whatever will be the pillars that will be agreed upon.
However, we also continue to call upon all public representatives to be really part of the army because this is bigger than government. This is for all of us to be vigilant and watchful, and to step in as soon as we are suspicious even of neglect by our own government departments. Whatever hon members can pick up as likely to be a barrier to what we want to achieve, any intervention, awareness and shouting will assist a lot because this is, for women of South Africa, big; it is causing so much pain and is something which we all wish we had more energy and means to just blow up. But unfortunately, we live in a society where we are driven by resources. However - I think - if we can all commit, we will get
somewhere and will see different results. This is because there is a commitment that we all do things differently.