“We have heard President Ramaphosa refer to gender-based violence as a “second pandemic” and as “a war being waged” on women," head of NSM's executive, Zubeda Dangor said. 

"Despite these strong statements, one of the major services that assists victims of violence to leave abusive and dangerous situations - women’s abuse shelters - continues to be overlooked and underfunded. The situation in the Eastern Cape has reached boiling point and can no longer be ignored.”

According to Dangor, within the NSM, five women’s abuse shelters in the Eastern Cape have reported dealing with delayed funding for several years and, as a result, have faced staff resignations, increased costs to the shelter from loans to cover the late payments and reduced funding over the years because the DSD will not accept backdated receipts after funding is finally disbursed.

Western Cape’s NSM representative Bernadine Bachar has said that it had approached social development Minister Lindiwe Zulu to address, among others, under-funding of and late payments to women's shelters.

“Our recommendations are based on the results of the Commission for Gender Equality’s (CGE) investigation into shelter services, which found what we already know, that late payment of tranches severely undermines the functions of shelters.

“The inadequacies and inefficiency of the Department of Social Development’s payment policies for shelters is failing survivors of gender based violence,” says Bachar. 

NSM said that women’s abuse shelters were integral to the response to victims of violence. "The state’s responsibility to provide these sheltering services is enshrined in the Domestic Violence Act (1998) and the service also forms an integral part of the National Policy Guidelines for Victim Empowerment.

African News Agency