WITH DISABILITIES: Chair, my name is Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, the Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities. The coronavirus pandemic or Covid-19, beset us when we were already battling as a country ... [Inaudible.] ... it befell us when we were already dealing with a mammoth of a problem and equally a pandemic of gender-based violence in our country. When this coronavirus pandemic beset us, we had to find a way of mitigating so that we do not lose many of our people. We had to save lives and livelihoods. The lockdown became a choice in order to make sure that we do not have many people infected and dying all over the place and at the same due to coronavirus. However, it has had its unintended consequences as we saw the increase of reported cases of gender-based violence. Women and children became targets of frustrations related Covid- 19 as we saw the increase of gender-based violence reports during lockdown period.