Gender justice advocacy group Wise Collective has criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa’s latest response to the ongoing crisis of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF).
The group’s director, Advocate Brenda Madumise-Pajibo, questioned the sincerity of the president’s commitment to addressing GBVF, pointing to similarities between his latest announcement and measures introduced years ago.
Ramaphosa recently acknowledged that seven years ago he addressed the nation on the GBVF crisis, expressing hope that no president would have to return to the country with the same message.
In September 2019, he announced an Emergency Response Action Plan aimed at tackling GBVF. Madumise-Pajibo said many of the measures announced again are similar to those contained in the earlier plan.
She questioned why previous commitments had not been fully implemented and warned that repeating the same measures could create the impression that meaningful progress is being made when the underlying problems remain.
Madumise-Pajibo said the latest announcements risk becoming “done for show” if government does not examine why previous commitments were not implemented.
