R1bn not enough to fight the ‘demon of patriarchy’, says Ramaphosa

A billion rand is not enough to eradicate gender-based violence, which is caused by the “demon of patriarchy”, President Cyril Ramaphosa told the National Council of Provinces on Thursday.

Last month, after a spate of high profile incidents of gender-based violence swept over through the country, Ramaphosa addressed a joint sitting of both houses of Parliament.

During that sitting, he announced the government would reallocate R1.1bn in additional funding this financial year to dispel the “dark and heavy shadow” of gender-based violence that has been cast across the country.

On Thursday, in a follow-up question, DA MP from the Northern Cape Delmaine Christians asked if this was enough.

“Clearly, R1bn is not adequate,” Ramaphosa said.

He said the government had said this before, and it was still the case.

He said to address the “massive, massive crisis of gender-based violence”, government needed to budget in a “much smarter way”.

DA MP Cathy Labuschagne, who asked the original question on gender-based violence, pointed in her follow-up question to Police Minister Bheki Cele’s undertaking that all police stations would have sufficient amounts of rape evidence collection kits by Monday, October 14.

She asked Ramaphosa that he undertake that this would indeed be the case.

“We are now on a drive to ensure all police stations will have its own rape kits,” Ramaphosa said.

“I will monitor this myself,” he said, but did not commit to a date.

He said South African women raised the matter of a shortage of rape evidence collection kits, and said he had issued a directive to Cele to address this.

Ramaphosa also said clinics and police stations must be places of refuge for victims of gender-based violence.

He said young boys must be inculcated with respect for women. There must also be a “massive campaign” to teach older men that gender-based violence will not be tolerated.

“In society, we need to address this demon of patriarchy,” Ramaphosa said.

“We need to send a very clear message that there is no man that owns a woman.”

“We need to stress that men must respect women and treat them with dignity,” Ramaphosa said.

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