President Cyril Ramaphosa calls for Joint Sitting of Parliament on gender-based violence and femicide issues

17 September 2019

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for a Joint Sitting of the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces to focus the attention of elected public representatives and the nation at large on the crisis of gender-based violence and femicide.

The President has in terms of Section 84(2)(d) of the Constitution, read with Rule 7(1)(b) of the Joint Rules of Parliament called for a Joint Sitting of Parliament for Wednesday, 18 September 2019.

The Constitution empowers the President to summon Parliament to an extraordinary sitting to conduct special business.

In a letter to Parliament dated Thursday, 12 September 2019, President Ramaphosa provided the following motivation for his call: “In the last two weeks South Africa’s approach to violence perpetrated against women has changed fundamentally.

“We all have the responsibility to ensure that these events become the turning point in our fight against gender-based violence.”

President Ramaphosa recently engaged with protesters at Parliament where the President gave women the assurance that government will intensify action against men who kill women and commit various forms of abuse. 

The march to Parliament took place amid a spate of deadly attacks on women and girls in various parts of the country. 

Issued by Khusela Diko, Spokesperson to the President, 17 September 2019