MPs call for real funding to back GBVF disaster declaration - IOL

Liezl van der Merwe, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and People with Disabilities says the declaration of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) as a national disaster in 2025 gave citizens false hope. She and other MPs are now calling on the government to reclassify GBVF using the section of the Disaster Management Act that unlocks emergency funding from the National Treasury..

MPs are calling on the government to reclassify gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) as a national disaster, this time using the section of the Disaster Management Act which would unlock emergency funding from the National Treasury to address the scourge.

This comes a week after a number of women were found murdered and sexually assaulted in Ekurhuleni.

Parliament’s portfolio committee on women, youth and persons with disabilities noted this week that the GBVF crisis was getting worse despite its declaration as a national disaster last year. MPs across the political party spectrum suggested that the disaster declaration or classification did not seem to have “teeth” and was merely ceremonial without dedicated funding.

“The ring-fenced funding for the implementation of the national strategic plan and implementation of the national disaster is important and we appeal to (National) Treasury and the government to ensure that the necessary funding is set aside,” said committee chair Liezl van der Merwe this week.

“We cannot have plans on paper; good ideas in terms of declaring this crisis a national disaster but not put aside the rands and cents behind this fight. That’s our appeal as the portfolio committee,” she added.

In November last year, the government classified GBVF as a national disaster in terms of Section 23 of the Disaster Management Act which allowed government departments to reprioritise existing funds and strengthen co-ordination across spheres of government and enabled structured responses through established disaster management frameworks, including NATJOINTS, the interdepartmental committee on disaster management, and associated technical structures.

At the time, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs minister Velenkosini Hlabisa said the classification called on all organs of state to strengthen their support to existing GBVF response structures, to fully implement their contingency arrangements and to ensure that all necessary mechanisms are activated to enable the national executive to manage the disaster effectively.

The classification followed pressure from civil society advocacy groups who organised nationwide protests against GBVF.

In an urgent meeting with the departments of women, youth and people with disabilities, social development and the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE), MPs who serve in the women, youth and people with disabilities portfolio committee noted that the national disaster classification had not translated into tangible improvements for affected communities.

Their concerns were backed by the CGE, with one of its commissioners Princess Eurika Mogane explaining that the government had opted to classify GBVF using a section of the Act which is under existing frameworks and budgets, while Section 27 which has been used for natural catastrophes like floods and Covid 19 bypasses bureaucratic inertia and unlocks funding and extraordinary executive powers.

Calls to South Africa’s GBV Command Centre surged to 589 in a single day as demand for support climbed sharply in September.

“We are now seeing the impact thereof. It’s important to understand classifications and the sections invoked because that plays a major role for us,” she said.

Shoki Tshabalala, a deputy director-general at the department of women, youth and persons with disabilities confirmed that the classification did not receive any funding and that it called for the reprioritisation of budgets from existing budget baselines of departments. She said there was a work stream that was looking at how best to mobilise resources beyond being dependent on the fiscal space.

Tshabalala added that the GBVF national disaster response remained largely unfunded, with limited dedicated funding for implementation. “Baseline budget submissions show significant gaps,” she said.

In response to MPs’ concerns, Tshabalala said that the government was “fiscally constrained” at the point the classification was declared.

“We had to think on our feet collectively, all of us. And therefore the reprioritisation exercise was the best modus operation at that point in time that we could consider as government to make sure that we could continue this kind of work,” she said.

Speaking after the meeting, Van der Merwe said the classification of GBVF as a national disaster gave people "false hope".

“I think naturally all the activists were overjoyed when government declared GBVF a national disaster because we all know that disasters unlock funding. But in this case, the government relied on the section of the act which doesn't unlock funding. That is where the problem came. It gave people false hope,” said Van der Merwe.

Van der Merwe said declaring GBVF a national disaster without allocating funding appeared to be a knee jerk reaction and did not make sense and hence the call on the government to invoke the section of the act that would allow the National Treasury to release funds.

“If we can find money for a flood, and if we can find money to stop March and March, you can find money for disaster. So go back, change that declaration, don't use the part of the act that you used before that says it's a self-funded disaster and properly declare it as a disaster,” she said.

Van der Merwe said additional funding could be used to employ more social workers, buy more rape kits and train police officers on GBVF issues among other things.