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Police Minister Bheki Cele has named 30 communities in the country that are considered hot spots for gender violence.
Police Minister Bheki Cele during the nedia briefing where he gave details about the surveillance during the COVID-19 lockdown. Tuesday September 22, 2020: Image: Twitter / @ GovernmentZA
JOHANNESBURG – Police Minister Bheki Cele said on Tuesday that while the country had a good chance of beating COVID-19, the same could not be said about gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide.
It has named 30 communities in the country that are considered hot spots for gender violence.
These include Delft, Bellville, Nyanga in the Western Cape and Diepsloot, Alexandra, Moroka and Honeydew in Gauteng.
Cele said that among the interventions that will be implemented to address gender violence is to ensure that police stations in critical points have welcoming rooms for victims and a special desk to deal with cases.
This is part of the role of the police in implementing level one of the blockade.
Cele said the information showed that special attention should be paid to Tembisa, Orange Farm, Mamelodi East, Umlazi, Inanda, Temba, Khayelitsha, Gugulethu and Mitchells Plain, among others.
“As part of the SAPS integrated action plan for sexual crimes and GBV, there are proactive measures with short, medium and long-term frameworks. GBV continues to be a priority crime for SAPS.”
The minister said that access to resources should not be limited to critical areas, but become the norm in all police stations.
DOES THE GOVERNMENT ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS?
The University of Johannesburg GBV researcher Lisa Vetten said it was good that the police focused on GBV, but felt the government was not asking the right questions.
For example, why are there more reports of gender-based violence in the identified areas?
“We need to try to identify why we have a high frequency of crime. You can’t just say ‘this place has the highest numbers, therefore it has the biggest problems’ because sometimes the numbers are high because it is a very large area. “
Eight of the 30 hot spots identified are in Cape Town and in recent months there have been numerous cases of feminicide and child violence.
The Western Cape has a commissioner for children and Christina Nomdo believes that the government alone cannot tackle gender-based violence.
“The government has a definite role to play because we invest resources in the fiscus. Common citizens must begin to take responsibility for the culture of violence in our country.”
Nomdo said that whenever the government came up with a plan, it sounded great and tackled problems at a macro level, but in his view, plans had to start at a micro level with individuals.
Additional information from Kaylynn Palm.
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