The National Shelter Movement of South Africa (NSMSA) urges citizens to make use of the opportunity and publicly comment on the bills while they still can because the fight against gender-based violence is a collective one. 

NSMSA’s Eastern Cape representative and shelter manager at Masimanyane Women’s Rights International, Chrislynn Moonieyan, points out that the Domestic Violence, Sexual Offences and Related Matters Amendment Bills are intended to limit the loopholes that existed in the same legislature previously that enabled perpetrators to avoid prosecution and imprisonment for such offences. Monnieyan elaborates on the ramifications of such loopholes, citing a tragic Eastern Cape domestic violence case.

She shares that recently an Eastern Cape woman obtained a protection order against her live-in partner at the time. She moved out of their shared home and stayed with a friend. The perpetrator tracked her down, even with the protection order in place, and once he was inside the premises, he poured hot water over her. He was promptly arrested but was granted bail, a fact that Monnienyan finds baffling.

The Criminal and Related Matters Amendment Bill will make it harder for perpetrators of GBV and femicide to be granted bail. Prosecutors will under the amended bill be forced to state reasons as to why they are not opposing bail. The bills will create a new offence for sexual intimidation, furthermore widening the scope of what constitutes incest.

Monnienyane says they have found that the rates of rape – specifically regarding incest - rose during the lockdown because citizens were restricted to their homes. NSMSA welcomes that part of the amended bills.

She stresses that it is important that all GBV-related responsibilities within the police, or at a hospital, must be assigned to qualified and experienced individuals to avoid secondary victimisation.

With regards to the mandatory reporting of domestic violence to police by a helping professional like a social worker, Monnienyan says this takes away the victim’s agency, “because she needs to be in a place where she is ready to decide what is best for her life”. She says it also jeopardises the trust between the helping professional and the victim.

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