The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is deeply concerned about the escalating number of gender-based violence cases during the lockdown period.
According to the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele over 2 300 complaints have been registered since the beginning of the lockdown between the 27 to 31 March and from these cases, 148 suspects have been charged.
The number of gender-based violence cases that have been registered between January and 31 March 2020 now stands at 15 924.
The DA, therefore, calls on both the Gauteng MEC for Community Safety, Faith Mazibuko and the Gauteng SAPS Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General, Elias Mawela to strengthen and provide adequate resources and personnel to the Family Violence Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) at our police stations to ensure that police officers have the capacity to respond to such complaints.
Minister Cele indicated that once all reports have been consolidated, the figures will be measured against the number of complaints received through the Gender-Based Violence Command Centre in 2019, where the figure stands at 87,920.
These stats are worrying and clearly indicate that the safety of women and children is under threat particularly during this lockdown period.
We demand a breakdown per province on where these incidents have been reported to ensure that there are immediate interventions by different stakeholders involved in fighting the scourge of gender-based violence.
The DA will make a follow-up on the gender-based violence cases reported during the lockdown to ascertain the number of arrests, the progress in terms of investigations and the number of convictions to ensure that the victims get the justice they deserve.
We also encourage more victims to speak out on issues of gender-based violence as this social ill has a negative impact on the well-being of all our people.