Official reply: 19/08/11
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
QUESTION 67/2011
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
Date of publication on internal question paper: 06 April 2011
Internal question paper no: 11
Ms B P Mabe (ANC-Gauteng) to ask the Minister of Social Development:
1) Whether domestic violence has decreased during the past five years; if
not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
2) (a) what (i) policies, programmes and/or services and (ii) training
initiatives has her department introduced and implemented to give
effect to the Domestic Violence Act, Act 116 of 1998, and (b) what
measures are in place to monitor and evaluate the effects of the
implementation of the said Act;
3) (a) what is the status of the (i) National Policy Framework for
Families, (ii) Draft Strategy on Child Abuse and Neglect and (iii)
Financing Policy for the Provision of Social Development Service, (b)
when will these policies be finalised and implemented, (c) how much has
been earmarked for their implementation and (d) how are they monitored
and evaluated? CO252E
REPLY:
1) Statistics on crime is the mandate of the South Africa Police Service
and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development keeps
statistics of domestic violence cases that have gone through the courts
system. However, the official crime statistics as provided by the South
Africa Police Service do not provide a category for domestic violence
which makes it difficult to keep reliable statistics on domestic
violence. Nevertheless, the Victim Empowerment Programme under the
leadership of the Department of Social Development commissioned a study
on the nature and prevalence of domestic violence in South Africa in
2008. The findings of this study show that domestic violence continues
to be highly prevalent in South Africa and the majority of its victims
are women who are vulnerable economically. The study further indicates
that most of the victims of domestic violence are dependent on the
perpetrator for housing because they are unemployed or do not have
enough income to secure housing on their own.
The Department of Social Development (Department) developed Generic
Indicators Set (GIS) and monitoring tools in 2009 to capture data on
victims of crime and violence including domestic violence. During the
2010/11 financial year, the GIS was piloted in three provinces, namely
Gauteng, Limpopo and North West. The Department has extended the pilot
to Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State provinces for the current
financial year (2011/12). Furthermore, the Department of Social
Development is currently developing the Victims Register to capture all
victims of crime and violence that have utilised victim empowerment
services. The Victims Register will be implemented as from June 2011 as
a pilot. The rollout of the GIS in all provinces after the pilot and
implementation of the Victimsâ Register by 2012/13 will assist the
Victim Empowerment Sector to get a clear picture on statistics and
trends related to domestic violence in South Africa.
2) (a) (i) The Department of Social Development developed the Policy
Framework and Strategy for Shelters for Victims of Domestic Violence in
South Africa to guide and facilitate the establishment of shelters for
victims of domestic violence. The main aim of establishing shelters is
to break the cycle of violence and to ensure the safety and security of
the victims. The shelters provide psycho-social therapy, accommodation,
early childhood development for victimsâ children, skills development
for the victims to ensure that the victims are capacitated to be able
to function on their own instead of relying on the perpetrator for
their livelihoods. The Department has also developed National Policy
Guidelines for Victim Empowerment in order to guide the provision of
services to victims of crime and violence. Furthermore, the Department
in partnership with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has
established One Stop Centres to counter violence against women. The One
Stop Centres provide multi-disciplinary services whereby the victims
receive psycho-social services, medical services, forensic and legal
services under one roof in order to minimize secondary victimisation.
The Department has developed a Strategy for the engagement of men and
boys in prevention of gender-based violence in order to encourage
active participation of men in prevention of gender-based violence. The
Strategy for engagement of men and boys in prevention of gender-based
violence was piloted in North West Province in 2009 and workshops to
facilitate the implementation of the strategy for men and boys were
conducted in all nine provinces in 2010. Lastly, the Department under
the European Commission funded Programme of Assistance to Victim
Empowerment Programme has funded 118 civil society organizations which
provide services to victims of crime and violence in all nine provinces
for the total of R31 million from 2009 to 2010.
(ii) The Department, in partnership with United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime, facilitated training of service providers from government
and civil society organizations on trauma and victim support in all
nine provinces during 2010/11 financial year. Victim Empowerment
service providers in all nine provinces were trained on the Policy
Framework and Strategy for Shelters for Victims of Domestic Violence
and guidelines on domestic violence during 2010/11 financial year. The
Department has also trained civil society organizations which provide
victims empowerment services on financial management and writing
business plans during the 2009/10 financial year. During 2009/10 all
victim empowerment coordinators in all nine provinces were trained in
facilitating learning to enable district coordinators facilitate
trainings in their regions and this training was conducted in 2009/10
financial year. The database of trained officials is available.
(b) All service providers that are funded by the Department have signed
contracts which stipulate the submission of six months reports as a
requirement and condition for all financial awards to civil society
organizations. The provinces and national departments submit quarterly
reports to the National Victim Empowerment Management Team on all
activities relating to empowerment of victims. These reports include
activities implemented by civil society organizations in pursuance of
the objectives of the departmentâs mandate on Victim Empowerment. The
Department of Social Development then reports to the Integrated Justice
System Development Committee on all victim empowerment related
activities on monthly basis.
The development and implementation of the Generic Indicator Set for
Victim Empowerment Programme (GIS), Victimsâ Register and Victim
Satisfaction Surveys are additional measures that the Department and
its partners had put in place to strength monitoring and evaluation of
not only the Domestic Violence Act but all services to victims of crime
and violence.
3) (a) (i) The draft National Family Policy was presented to Cabinet in
February 2009 and Cabinet recommended that the policy be converted into
a Green Paper on the Family. Cabinet further recommended that the Green
Paper should adopt a focus and approach that is developmental and
provide a sociological evaluation of the extent to which Government
programmes and legislation consolidate the funcnality of the family.
Presently, a Green Paper on the Family has been developed and will be
tabled before Cabinet for approval and gazetting. It is envisaged that
the Green Paper on the Family will be a basis of a process of public
consultation, after which the product thereof will become a White Paper
on the Family.
(b) The White Paper is envisaged to be finalised and approved during
the financial year 2012/13 and the implementation thereof on 2013/14.
(c) An amount of R 7 657 000 has been earmarked for the implementation
of the White Paper on the Family.
(d) A draft Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Services to
Families has been developed and will be aligned with the White Paper on
the Family after it has been finalised.
(ii)(a) The National Policy Framework and Strategic Plan for Prevention
and Management of Child Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation was approved in
principle by the then Minister of Social Development during 2004. It
has been reviewed in order to align it to the Childrenâs Act (Act No.
38 of 2005) which came into operation on 01 April 2010. The Strategy is
currently going through the approval process and has been renamed the
Child Protection Strategy for 2011 to 2015 in accordance with the 5
year Plan.
(b) A 5 year outcomes based Implementation Plan for this Strategy based
on norms and standards for child protection, has also been developed
and costed. The implementation thereof is to commence in September 2011
after the training of all the stakeholders has been completed.
(c) The funding for the implementation of the said Strategy is included
in the provincial budgets as part of the implementation of the
Childrenâs Act.
(d) The monitoring and evaluation tool developed for the Childrenâs Act
will be utilized to monitor the implementation of the Strategy.
(iii)(a) The review of the Policy on Financial Awards to Service Providers
(PFA) has been approved by MINMEC on 31 March 2011.
(b) The Policy on Financial Awards (PFA) has been approved for
implementation with effect from 01 April 2011 in a phased manner. The
full implementation of the policy will be during 2012/13 when all
stakeholders have been familiarized with the new provisions of the
policy.
(c) The amount earmarked for the implementation of the Policy on
Financial Awards for the provisioning of the Social Development
Services is R 18 000 000 for National Department of Social Development
and R3,705,940 for all Provincial Departments of Social Development.
The table below shows the budget breakdown per province.
|Province |Budget |
|Gauteng |R 1Â 032 322 |
|KwaZulu-Natal |R471 890 |
|Mpumalanga |R319 446 |
|North West |R204 878 |
|Western Cape |R666 148 |
|Eastern Cape |R429 523 |
|Free State |R301 198 |
|Northern Cape |R118 222 |
|Limpopo |R381 246 |
(d) The Department has developed guidelines to facilitate the
implementation of the policy. The guidelines have tools that have been
designed to ensure proper administration of the transfers to NGOs as
well as monitoring and evaluation measures. All funded NPOâs are
required to provide reports to districts and provinces on a quarterly
basis.