Cabinet is expected to sign an anti-gender based violence and femicide (GBVF) pledge this week, led by President Cyril Ramaphosa and Deputy President Paul Mashatile.

The pledge signing is expected to be held at the Women’s Memorial at the Union Buildings on Wednesday.

The pledge was initiated by the President during the State of the Nation Address earlier this year.

‘President Ramaphosa, Deputy President Mashatile and male Ministers will append their signatures to a symbolic, large-format version of the pledge. Male Deputy Ministers have also been invited to express their commitment in this way.

‘Soon after members of the national executive sign the pledge, the document will be posted online to allow men across the country to add their names as signatories. The pledge will progressively be made available in other formats to men all around the country,’ the Presidency said in a statement.

According to the statement, the pledge forms part of the National Strategic Plan on GBVF, which aims to mobilise ‘all
of society’ against the scourge.

‘Jointly developed by government and civil society following the historic 2018 Presidential Summit on Gender-based Violence and Femicide, the National Strategic Plan on GBVF was adopted in 2020 as a society-wide programme to end gender-based violence and femicide.

‘The plan aims to provide a multi-sectoral, coherent strategic policy and plan to strengthen a coordinated national response to the crisis of gender-based violence and femicide by government and the country as a whole.

‘The 10-year national strategy on GBVF seeks to address the needs and challenges faced by all, especially women across age, sexual orientation, sexual and gender identities; and specific groups such as elderly women, women who live with disability, migrant women and trans women, affected and impacted by the gender-based violence scourge in South Africa,’ the statement concluded.

Source: South African Government News Agency