Hon Chairperson and Minister, the advent of democracy gave women, children and people with disabilities the hope that finally their situation as individuals would be improved. The department was meant to vigorously implement several Acts, but instead it spent money and time on gatherings and speechmaking.

The sad reality is that the department has failed our women, children and people living with disabilities.

Hon Minister, I have to say that I am throwing my speech side because there are more urgent matters that also need to be heard. Hopefully the Ministry and the department can take this forward.

The department was tasked with promoting a society free of violence and abuse against women, children and people living with disabilities. If anything, the situation in respect of the above has deteriorated. Today in our midst, we have a young mother with children who works at this institution and who is a victim of continuous abuse and harassment.

This is a plea from her that abusers such as rejected stalkers who have cases pending at court for stalking and harassment and the contravention of protection orders and who have been identified as having pre-existing psychiatric illnesses need to be sent by the courts for evaluation and assessment to identify the psychopathic deviances.

According to a chief prosecutor at the Goodwood Magistrates' Court, magistrates view stalking and harassment as petty crimes and the sentencing often does not match the crime. The National Prosecuting Authority, NPA, is failing our women here. Abusers are given suspended sentences without any management of their actions thereafter.

Minister, there can be a plea that those convicted of stalking and harassment and who have been diagnosed as psychopathic should be forced to wear a GPS-enabled device so that they can be monitored and prevented from continuing their harassment and stalking.

We have seen how many women have lost their lives; it starts with harassment but at the end of the day they are murdered. That is what the media talks about, when it is too late.

A special police unit and a specialised court should be formed for domestic violence, stalking and harassment cases. Many are not equipped to understand the impact that stalking and harassment have on the victims, who are often left to manage their own situation due to the fact that it is regarded as petty crime.

Victims are in constant fear of what their stalker might do next because no control measures have been put in place during sentencing. We have here an example of the same case, with video recordings taken in public, where he walks out of a court with a R500 fine every time. We cannot continue having that. The day she loses her life, or her kids lose their lives, is the day it is going to be too late.

The media portrays the stories of those who were stalked and murdered but not those of survivors or those going through it every single day. There is a plea here for sufficient government-funded houses of safety that will also ensure that those victims who are in this trap are able to get out and start a life instead of having to run around hiding with their children, uprooting their children all the time in order to run away from the harassment.

We also need stricter implementation of maintenance laws, not only for maintenance of those young children, but also of wives that were lured and, if I may use the horrible word, were eventually "traded in" when they reached the age of 55, 60 or 70, after they had given up their whole life. We also need to have stricter control of that. We need to hear less of report submissions, theories and projections ... [Time expired.] I thank you. [Applause.]