Gender Equality and Violence Against Women: hearings

IMPROVEMENT OF QUALITY OF LIFE AND STATUS OF WOMEN JOINT MONITORING COMMITTEE
24 August 2006
GENDER EQUALITY AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN: HEARINGS

Chairperson: Ms M Morutoa (ANC)

Documents handed out:
Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act
The Impact of the Domestic Act, Act 118 of 1998 on the Lives of Women in South Africa
Presentation from the South African Police Services
HR Related matters of the Department of Justice (see Appendix)
Department of Justice & Constitutional Affairs presentation
Department of Justice and Constitutional Affairs: Gender Breakdown
Tshwarang Legal Advocacy Centre submission

SUMMARY
The Committee was briefed by Tshwaraganang Legal Advocacy Centre on the studies and research they had conducted on women with regard to their livelihoods, marriages, maintenance income from partners and divorces. Members of the South African Police Department briefed the Committee on the kinds of cases and issues that had been reported, the cases that were solved and one that were not solved. The Committee was further briefed by the Department of Justice and the Women’s Legal Centre.

The Committee was concerned about the progress made in the last decade in terms of addressing the various issues raised in the submissions; what the legal position of Islamic women was; whether the children of female victims were being cared for; and what support was being provided to women in the rural areas.

MINUTES
Submission by Gender Equality and Violence against Women
Ms Lisa Vetten (Tshwaraganang Legal Advocacy Centre) briefed the Committee on issues affecting women in terms of marriages, violence, maintenance payments from partners and problem with divorce settlements. Problems included the lack of magistrates in some districts, lack of funds to process claims and loopholes in the Marriages and Domestic Violence Acts. (See document for full submission).

Discussion
An ANC member questioned where the research done by the Advocacy Centre was conducted, whether it was in rural or urban areas.

Ms D Morobi (ANC) expressed her concern that the problems presented by Ms Vetten had been the same one for a while and it seemed as though there had been no progress on the issues. She enquired whether the Advocacy Centre has come up with solutions to some of the problems and where the volunteers at the centre were based.

The following questions were posed by Committee Members:
- How did the Centre inform women of their services?
- How did a Peace Order works?
- Were any studies done on the children of women that the Centre was helping; were they assisted in any way or did the law only takes into consideration the women and not their children?
- How many cases of rape were reported and resolved at that stage with SAPS and how many of those victims used the services of the Advocacy Centre?

Ms Vetten replied that the research was broad in a sense that they took samples from across the different ethnic groups in the country and from both urban and rural areas.

One in two to one in nine rape cases were reported to the police. She did not have the exact statistics of the cases that were resolved.

The volunteers were based at different centers and some of them at the courts offices to help with the claims of the women.

Flyers and word of mouth was used to inform women of the Centre’s services because of the expensive costs of other advertising methods.

A peace order was an order given to anyone that was disturbing the peace; this could be to neighbours making a noise or to a partner who emotionally abused their spouse. The order was given as a warning to the person found committing a wrong so they could correct it, failing which they were fined. Ms Vetten pointed out that a peace order was not a proper tool to solve domestic violence issues because of its leniency.

Submission by Womens Legal Centre
Ms Sibongile Ndashe (Womens Legal Centre) presented to the Committee on the legal problems experienced by women in terms of marriages, maintenance payment issues and loopholes in the Marriages and Domestic Violence Acts that created problems. (See document for full submission)

Discussion
Ms B Ntuli (ANC) asked if anything was being done about the loopholes in the Act that had been found about Islamic marriages. From the presentation it was clear that most Muslim women were married at the ‘church’ and did not register their marriages with the Department of Home Affairs. If the husband decides to leave the women they could just walk out with everything because they were never legally married.

An ANC member enquired as to the protection of children in terms of the law if it turned out that their parents were never legally married; and the outcome of the November 2000 deadline to register marriages.

Ms Morobi asked what had happened to the use of affidavits being used as proof and protection that they were married to their partners.

Ms Ndashe answered that the deadline of November 2000 had been extended to the end of 2001, and thereafter it was left to the discretion of the Minister of Home Affairs to extend the deadline again should the need arise. At that time, the Dept Home Affairs was still registering marriages.

The affidavits were not meant to act as a registration for a marriage. They did not serve the purpose of protecting the women and her rights to the estate if she was to separate from her partner.

In terms of Islamic marriages, it was not the Constitution that required changing, but a priority ruling on which law should take precedence should there be a conflict of two laws. In this case the legislation and not the Constitution was the problem.

The childrens’ interest was the top priority of the law because it protected them in terms of the care and money that they received during the separation of their parents.

Submission by the South African Police Department
The South African Police Department presented to the Committee on the programmes set up to address violence against women, and a report-back on projects for women, focusing on training for domestic violence, and finally on progress in terms of increasing the number of women employed by the SAPS. (See document for full submission).

Discussion
The Committee asked the following questions:
- What area within SAPS were women being developed?
- Where the women and child shelters within the country were and what was SAPS doing to increase their number?
- What happened to victims in cases where there was not a police station or forensic nurses and doctors to record evidence?
- What happened to cases that were reported to traditional leaders in the rural areas and not to the police?

Ms Morobi asked if there any records kept of males violated in terms of the Domestic Violence act; did SAPS have any ‘comfort’ police attendants to help victims who had experienced trauma; what was SSSBC?

Ms B Ngcobo (ANC) asked what happened to street kids that were sexually harassed and if there was any policy that addressed them in particular.

SAPS delegates responded that there was work in progress in terms of building more shelters and other specialised units for women and children.

Women were being developed within SAPS in different areas including as pilots, bomb disposal expers, mentoring, management and other training skills.

SSSBC stood for the Safety and Security Sector Bargaining Council. 

SAPS admitted that there was a large need for shelters, and in cases were there was no shelter close by, there were facilities for victims to stay over at police stations until other plans were made for them on the following day.

SAPS did not have statistics on the number of forensic nurses and doctors they had in the country. The Department of Health held that kind of information. However, there were crime kits available, and these needed to be ordered at the stations and not the hospitals.

Some traditional leaders had been trained on how to deal with cases that were reported to them, but they had to pass the details of the case on to the nearest police station.

SAPS had trained volunteers to deal with trauma cases when they were reported; they did not have any comfort police nor did they have professional trauma counseling.

Submission by the Department of Justice
Ms Raesibe Tladi (Department of Justice) briefed the Committee on half of the Department’s presentation due to time constraints.

The following questions were posed to by the Committee:
- Had there been any public awareness campaigns to make women aware of their rights?
- Who was allowed into the College of Justice - could students that wished to complete an LLB be admitted to the college?

Ms R Morutoa (ANC) asked Ms Tladi if she felt there had been any progress in the 12 years of democracy?

Ms Tladi felt that there had been progress even if it had been slow.

Awareness campaigns had been conducted in both the rural and urban areas to inform women of the Constitution and their rights.

The Justice College was not an academic institution where one could obtain a degree. It was meant for people who were already in the legal field, working for the Dept of Justice, to teach them management skills and inform them on the constantly changing legislation so that they are continually updated.

The meeting was adjourned.






APPENDIX:
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
SUBMISSION 24 AUGUST 2006

HR RELATED MATTERS FOR THE JMC ON IMPROVED QUALITY OF LIFE AND STATUS OF WOMEN EMPLOYMENT EQUITY

We are guided by the employment Equity Act, we have an Employment Equity plan which is cascaded down to the branches in terms of their areas of under-representation.

Promotion in the Department
We do not have a policy on promotion as promotion does not exist in the public service. Promotion only occurs technically after a person has applied for a higher post and is successful. The DPSA tries to shy away from use of the term promotion in that it causes unintended legal consequences.  In this instance we are guided by our employment equity report to ensure that designated groups are represented at higher levels in the organization.

Skills transfer
Skills transfer in the dept is done through mentoring (for employees on Learnership and Internship Programmes) and in-service-training.  The mentoring program needs to be expanded in a formalized way, beyond people who are on Learnership programmes and Internship programmes.  We are also guided by our workplace skills plan to offer training to be able to meet our service delivery objectives.