The government’s decision to classify gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) a national disaster has stopped short of unlocking the emergency powers, fast-tracked funding and extraordinary regulatory tools normally actioned under section 27 of the Disaster Management Act.
The National Disaster Management Centre’s notice, gazetted on November 24, formally recognises GBV as a disaster of national scale and places responsibility on the National Executive to co-ordinate the response. Because the government chose a section 23 classification rather than declaring a full national state of disaster under section 27, it remains reliant on existing departmental budgets and current legislation, rather than being able to access emergency resources or issue binding national regulations.
A Section 27 declaration, the same legal trigger used during Covid-19, would have allowed the state to unlock emergency disaster funding, deploy rapid-response services and accelerate procurement in the fight against GBV. Departments may reprioritise internal budgets, but no additional resources have yet been mobilised to match the urgency of the disaster designation.
Read: Gender-based violence is officially a disaster, but will that bring real change?
“In terms of section 15(2)(aA) of the Act, read with section 23(8), call upon organs of state to further strengthen their support to the existing structures to implement their contingency arrangements and to ensure that appropriate measures are put in place to enable the National Executive to effectively deal with the effects of this national disaster,” the head of the National Disaster Management Centre, Elias Sithole, said in the gazette dated November 24.
“Read with section 21(a)(ii) of the Act, [it recommends] that each organ of state prepares and submits progress reports, in line with the requirements of the National Disaster Management Centre, to monitor the response initiatives by organs of state, non-governmental organisations and communities.”
Protests across major cities last week saw thousands of women, students and civil-society groups demanding that GBVF be treated as a national emergency with the resources to match.
Under the classification, the National Executive assumes primary responsibility for co-ordinating and managing the disaster, requiring government departments, provincial administrations and municipalities to escalate and align their response measures. The notice further calls on the private sector, communities and individuals to strengthen prevention efforts, avoid harmful practices and support existing structures responding to the scourge.
Three women lose their lives to intimate partner violence every day, according to the SA Medical Research Council. One in three women (33.1%) over the age of 18 has experienced physical violence, and nearly 10% have endured sexual violence, reports the Human Sciences Research Council.
The World Bank notes South Africa’s intimate partner femicide rate is five times higher than the global average. More than 53,000 sexual offences are reported annually.
Also read:
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