KWAZULU-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli has revealed that the province has more than 650 women who have been rescued from gender-based violence in their families and are now housed in 46 shelters in various towns across the province.

During the provincial government’s commemoration of the Human Rights Day held in Durban on Saturday, Ntuli also announced that more shelters would be built in King Cetshwayo District, the North Coast, and Ugu District in the south coast.

He said there was a total of 755 victims of gender-based violence who are being taken care of, but he could not say where others were kept.

“There could be more who require these services, and we invite them to come forward,” said Ntuli.

He said eThekwini, which has 14 shelters occupied by 312 survivors, had the highest number of victims in the province.

Other operating shelters are in:

- uMzinyathi (three shelters with 35 survivors are occupied)

- uMgungundlovu (eight shelters with 52 survivors)

- uMkhanyakude (four shelters with 36 survivors)

- iLembe (two shelters with 28 survivors)

- uThukela (three shelters with 18 survivors)

- Zululand (four shelters with 10 survivors)

- Amajuba (two shelters with 50 survivors)

- Harry Gwala (six shelters with 112 survivors).

“Our province is badly affected by the scourge of gender-based violence across all the districts, with eThekwini leading with a number of cases reported.”

The main contributors to women's abuse were that they were economically dependent on their male partners and were unable to walk away.

As a result, the government has come up with a plan to help victims break free, which should be assisted by the provision of subsistence producers' support programmes towards household food production for vulnerable groups.

“The development of community-based programmes to provide people with disabilities and senior citizens independence promoting access to economic opportunities.

“Alignment of programmes through to empower the impoverished/disadvantaged communities in providing accessible government houses to the disabled and elderly sector,” he said.

He did not leave behind boys who are known to grow up to adopt abusive behaviour. He said the government has started the development of programmes targeting men.

“One of these is the platforms for men to talk about their abuse, and various centres for male-related illnesses known as Khuluma Ndoda (speak out man).

“Aligned to this is the development of programmes aimed at helping young boys conducted by elderly males into manhood (Boys to Men) and young girls that are coming of age carried out by elderly women.

“The province of KwaZulu-Natal has in the meantime, established the Provincial GBVF Rapid Response Teams to mitigate against delays and bottlenecks within the system given the urgent nature of GBVF cases,” said Ntuli.

He said under his watch, the provincial government would work on intensifying the culture of human rights that still reflects inequality based on racial, class, and gender fault lines.

“These present overwhelming human suffering to marginalised groups such as the underprivileged communities, women, children, the youth, farming communities, the disabled, senior citizens, and people living in rural areas.

He said the province was also facing the shame of the high rate of underage girl pregnancy, which he attributed to older men, including teachers who used money to entice vulnerable girls into sex.

“Many children are forced into marriages (ukuthwala) in rural communities.

“The safety of women in our communities is still a challenge as they are victims of house robberies, rape and murder.

“There is also undue delay in justice for victims of gender-based violence, ill-treatment of rape victims, and the delay in DNA results (and) this ultimately results in cases being closed prematurely due to insufficient evidence and perpetrators being released back to communities,” he said.

Provincial Parliament Speaker Nontembeko Boyce said only when there is service delivery would South Africans know that they were free without being told that they were free.

“They will wake up every day knowing that my human rights are valid because I am, as the constitution has said ‘we the people of South Africa” and I will feel like a truly South African citizen.

She said commemorating Human Rights Day was about celebrating being a South African and then equality “that knows no race, gender, ethnicity and positions”.

“Equality also understands that we can all be equal as South Africans and have our rights.

“There is one binding unity, which is the collective principle of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa,” she said.

bongani.hans@inl.co.za