The declaration, announced on Friday, followed nationwide demonstrations led by Women for Change SA, calling for stronger state intervention to curb rising cases of abuse and killings of women and girls. The decision signals a shift in government’s approach, placing GBVF on the same level of urgency as natural disasters, pandemics or large-scale emergencies.
Hlabisa said the committee’s first task will be to ensure that government departments, provinces and municipalities immediately reassess their current budgets to identify resources that can be redirected towards supporting frontline responses.
“The classification, firstly, allows all departments and all provinces and municipalities to revisit their existing budgets and review where they can review to make resources available to deal with the crisis at hand,” Hlabisa explained.
He added that the Inter-Governmental Committee on Disaster Management will be activated on Monday afternoon, bringing together senior officials responsible for emergency coordination across the country. Their mandate will include assessing immediate needs, strengthening reporting structures, and determining how national and local governments can collectively scale up prevention and survivor-support interventions.
“By the end of the week, we are going to get feedback as to how they are going to respond in terms of the available resources,” Hlabisa said.
–SABC/ChannelAfrica–
