A community that works together
KwaThema – A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the KwaThema Police Station and Ubuntu Gender Based Violence Activists (UGBVA), to work together to mitigate gender-based violence and children abuse in the community.
As a community-based organisation, UGBVA aims to assist community members who find themselves in abusive relationships in their homes and are too intimidated to seek help.
According to the chairperson of the organisation, Jakes Matsema, as residents of KwaThema they have realised that far too many people (men, women and children) are being abused and are sometimes afraid to seek help at the police station, in case they are mocked or not attended to.
“So, we, as an organisation, are trying to bridge the gap, assisting victims to get the necessary help and ensuring they are being treated with respect and dignity,” he says.
“More importantly, we need the police to work with us to eradicate crime and substance abuse, which is one of the core roots of abuse.”
In their memorandum of understanding, UGBVA requests that the KwaThema Police Station shows mutual respect, gives feedback on cases of clients referred to the SAPS by the organisation, collaboration with the SAPS in awareness campaigns and projects, invitations to meetings, assistance with resources to attend to domestic violence cases and a good working relationship, to mention a few.
Currently the organisation is busy with door-to-door campaigns, raising awareness against domestic violence and social crimes.
Capt Thabo Sibuyi from the KwaThema Police Station confirms that the memorandum was delivered to the station and that, through the door-to-door campaign conducted by UGBVA, a lot of cases were exposed to the police for investigation.
