Ramaphosa slammed for dodging responsibility over GBVF council delays

The Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities has strongly refuted President Cyril Ramaphosa’s claim that Parliament is responsible for delays in establishing the Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Council.

The Committee says the delays stem from government, not Parliament – calling the President’s remarks factually incorrect.

Ramaphosa made the remarks during a Q&A session in the National Assembly on Tuesday, expressing frustration that the Council had not yet been established, nearly a year after he signed the Bill into law. He suggested that the delay undermines government’s commitment to addressing gender-based violence.

The President further said, the delays reflected badly on the promises made to women to combat GBV.

“My wish would have been that I should set it up because we would have moved on. But because you are averse to having a dictator, which is a good thing, you’ve delayed in setting up this council,” said Ramaphosa.

Committee Chairperson, Liezel van der Merwe, hit back, saying the President’s statement misrepresents the facts. She emphasized that Parliament had refused to approve a “tick-box” Council without adequate financial backing.

She said they have also raised concerns that no budget was allocated to properly run the Council.

Anti GBVF movement, Women for Change, has also weighed in, has condemned government for its continued failure to survivors of gender-based violence.

Spokesperson and community manager, Cameron Kasambala, criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa for repeatedly distancing himself from the responsibilities of government – despite his involvement in launching the 2019 National Strategic Plan (NSP) to combat GBV and Femicide.

Kasambala futher accused the President of failing to acknowledge gender-based violence as a national crisis, despite persistent and urgent calls from advocacy groups across the country.

“This is a crisis that is ruining people’s lives. He is still trying to distance himself from the issue and I always say, when we discuss it, that when COVID hit, the way that he immediately mobilized forces, introduced funding, legislation, just quickly handled it so that it was dealt with appropriately and yet now when hundreds of thousands of women, you know, 11 women are being killed every day, there’s 117 rape cases being reported every day.”