Presentation to Committee on the 10-year Review of the Implementation of the Domestic Violence Act - Gender Democracy

One in Nine campaign on the lack of responsiveness of the South African justice system to gender based violence.

On 9 September 2009, the Gender Advocacy Programme (GAP) facilitated a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, Children and People with Disabilities by Lisa Vetten, Tshwaranang’s senior researcher and policy analyst, on comprehensive research documenting the challenges of implementing South Africa’s Domestic Violence Act (DVA).

Committee Members welcomed the presentation and were deeply concerned by its findings, which showed that in most cases, the failure to properly implement the Act leave victims of domestic violence vulnerable. Discussions following the presentation explored issues such as: the lack of resources available to family courts; lack of capacity to implement the act among the police and magistrates;  lack of resources to train police and magistrates on the Act and implementation; lack of public awareness of this act and the rights of those who suffer domestic violence.

The committee agreed that in the Committee’s five-year term, the Domestic Violence Act be a strategic priority, in addition to the Sexual Offences Act.

Importantly, the Committee unanimously accepted the presentation’s recommendation to host public hearings on the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act. Details of the public hearing shall be communicated in due course.

The hearings will include officials from the Department of Justice, the South African Police Services and most importantly victims/survivors of Domestic Violence, and those who have had experience with the implementation of the Act, these include Civil Society Organisations such as Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Center and GAP.

Further, members’ acknowledged the need for the committee to participate in the MTEF process, so as to ensure that the 2010 budget commits adequate resources to effectively implement the DVA, and possibly even reject the 2010 budget should it fail to make such provisions.