16 Days of Activism: R1.8 million should have been spent to help victims

14 December 2018

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is fully committed to the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children campaign and have hosted a number of awareness and other events in this time.

However, we are deeply concerned that the eThekwini Metro is spending a whopping R1.8 million on two events in this period that will not directly help victims of gender-based violence.

The first event was an opening event on 27 November and the second event will take place tomorrow to conclude the campaign.

While we wholeheartedly support the campaign and recognise its significance (especially with statistics showing that in some parts of the City, gender-based violence is at its highest in the country) we believe that money spent during this campaign should benefit victims of abuse.

KwaZulu-Natal occupies the first two positions on the list of police stations with the most reported rape cases and it is imperative that municipal funds in this province must go towards actively addressing this scourge, and not towards funding unnecessary social events.

There are many programmes and organisations that could have been assisted with this amount of money. One of them is Igugu Labantu, a non-profit organization which caters for abused women and children. This organisation is yet to receive funding from the ANC ‘s Metro. Until this day the failing ANC has done nothing to help this shelter and many other shelters.

The DA believes that the money could have been better used to:

- Fund shelters for abused women and children;

- Invest in extracurricular activities to help victims realise their potential;

- Provide psychological help to those affected; and

- Create an awareness campaign on women and children abuse in every corner of the province

The DA is against the looting and wasteful expenditure of the people's money while the vulnerable are left to fend for themselves.

Only under a DA government will there be a real and sincere commitment towards fighting gender-based violence and building a safe One South Africa for All.

Issued by Zandile Mkhize, DA eThekwini Councillor, 14 December 2018