Thank you, hon Chairperson. Hon members, a vital pillar of our emergency action plan on gender-based violence is to strengthen the criminal justice system. This is to ensure that justice is served, perpetrators are held to account, survivors do not suffer secondary victimisation and that the law does act as a deterrent. In pursuit of these goals, members of the SA Police Service undergo training programmes to professionally assist victims of gender-based violence. This training includes programmes on children and youth at risk, domestic violence, vulnerable children, victim empowerment and the first responder to sexual offences learning programmes. More than 5000 members have been trained since April 2019.
In addition, there is an initiative to train and capacitate female SA Police Service members who are placed at client service centres on the sexual offences for investigators' learning programmes. This
training is aimed at creating a conducive setting for gender-based violence victims, especially female victims, who find it difficult to report such crimes to male officers. In addition to these measures undertaken by the police, the Department of Social Development and the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities have put in place a package of social services to improve investigations and increase conviction rates of offenders.
The government is providing funding to nongovernmental organisations, NGOs, operating in some police stations to provide counselling and psycho-socio services to the victims of violence. Among other things, this is meant to enable victims to give quality statements and to reduce the number of cases which are later withdrawn by victims. The government is recruiting more social workers to reduce the huge workload for the police and social workers. The Department of Social Development is currently managing the gender-based violence command centre which provides online counselling services such as trauma, debriefing and psychosocial support. There is a toll free number that people can phone. The gender-based violence command centre is the partnership with the private sector. It is imperative that other private sector institutions also work with the government to raise awareness of gender-based violence in this manner.
As outlined during the Joint Sitting of Parliament on 18 September 2019, we are committed to enhancing the safety of women in our country as a matter of urgency by making the necessary amendments to our laws and policies with a view of ensuring that perpetrators of gender-based violence are really brought to book. The government is making substantial additional funding available for a comprehensive package of interventions to make an immediate and lasting difference. These interventions are being implemented across several departments as we speak, with monitoring and evaluation systems being put in place to ensure fast and effective progress. I thank you.