Cape Town - The Western Cape Head of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has said that just over 10,000 protection orders are registered in the province every month.
Hishaam Mohamed said the Western Cape had recorded the highest number in South Africa, and what was even more concerning was that that was an increase “of just over 2 000 protection order applications in the past year”.
The areas where the highest number of applications for protection orders were recorded included Khayelitsha, Nyanga, Philippi and Delft.
Mohamed looked exhausted as he painted a bleak picture of domestic violence at a media briefing on Thursday, but was confident that the government’s Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster would deal with gender-based violence “decisively” during this year’s 16 Days of Activism Campaign.
He said authorities were planning to crack down on maintenance defaulters and domestic violence abusers.
During Women’s Month three months ago, the department engaged with thousands of women from across the Western Cape to find out why some victims did not return to court to finalise protection orders.
Mohamed said many expressed “fear of reprisal from their abusers, as well as financial dependency which forced them to remain in abusive relationships”.
This year’s theme for the 16 days of Activism is “Count me in: Together Moving a Non-Violent South Africa forward”.
There will be a particular focus on young men and Mohamed called on men to stop being “passive bystanders” and instead declare publicly that “enough is enough”.
In the Western Cape, there were a total of 37 000 criminal cases on court rolls, the highest in the country. Mohamed said Gauteng came in second, with a total of 35 000 cases on its court rolls.
He said the JCPS cluster departments had committed to act against women abusers “by implementing new strategies to give effect to the Domestic Violence Act”.
The department has called on victims not to withdraw their applications for protection orders.
And Mohamed has committed to providing better infrastructure such as sexual offences courts and victim-friendly rooms at police stations throughout the province.
Mohamed said a new Sexual Offences Court and a Thutuzela Care Centre (which is a one-stop service centre for rape victims) would be officially opened in Atlantis on December 3.
African News Agency
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