Criminal Justice Responses: Assessing the Implementation of the Domestic Violence Act in Gauteng

In 1998, in recognizing the excessive rates of domestic violence in South Africa and in recognizing that the legal remedies available at the time were ineffective in dealing with the full extent and range of domestic violence, the first post-apartheid government enacted a piece of legislation called the Domestic Violence Act (DVA). The purpose of the Act was to “afford victims of domestic violence the maximum protection from domestic abuse that the law can provide”. The Act is an impressive piece of legislation but the efficacy of the relief that the Act provides to victims of domestic violence has been hampered by the state’s failure to effectively implement it.

In their ‘Enhancing State Response to Gender Based Violence’ project, the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre to end violence against women, seek to promote more just outcomes for survivors of rape and domestic violence through enhancing the capacity of civil society to hold the state accountable for delivering services to women at the forefront of rights abuses.

This publication is the third and final report of a series of shadow reports that this project undertakes. The report sets out the provisions of the DVA and assesses whether problems with the implementation of this legislation are still being faced by profiling the experiences of 151 people applying for protection orders at nine courts in Johannesburg and East Rand and seeking assistance from the police on domestic violence matters.