Premier

PREMIER

There are many challenges facing women in South Africa but, given that the question seeks information on provincial government programmes, I will focus on the those issues which fall within the mandate of provincial governm

1. Challenges facing women, and by association their children, include:

• Poverty and unemployment
• Safety
• Gender-based violence
• Health concerns such as HIV/AIDs
• Fragmentation of the family structure
• The effects of substance abuse
• Human trafficking

2. The Western Cape Government has various programmes to address these challenges. Departments were asked to provide inputs and these are provided below.

Some of the Game-Changers do address aspects of these challenges but are not restricted to challenges facing women.

One of the biggest challenges facing woman in the province is the fact that many of them live in poverty and are unable to find a job. With this in mind, the WCG focused on identifying top priorities over the next five years, which could serve as catalysts for major improvements in people’s lives, in particular, the lives of our youth.  As a result, we have committed to seven priority interventions, which we have called Game-Changers.  We believe four of these will contribute towards uplifting women, in particular younger women living in the province. These four are expanding Apprenticeships, Rolling out eLearning at schools, expanding quality After-School activities as well as Alcohol Harms Reduction.

We hope to increase job opportunities through our Apprenticeship Game-Changer, which aims to achieve sufficient, appropriately qualified, technical & vocationally skilled people to meet the needs of prioritised economic growth areas in the Western Cape by 2019. The Game-Changer will focus on increasing the number of quality College and School Learners and the number of Competent Workplace-Based Learners. Our target is an additional 32500 learners having completed work-based learning over the next two and a half years.

The After School Game-Changer focuses on Western Cape learners having regular and sustained participation in after school activities which contributes towards positive youth development. Our target is ensuring that at least 20% of no- and low fee learners in the Province - 112 000 learners - regularly and consistently attend quality after school programmes at least twice a week by 2019. This will ensure young girls have a safe place to study and take part in academic, sporting and cultural activities after school hours.

Finally, the goal of our eLearning Game-Changer is to enhance the teaching and learning experience of Western Cape learners, predominantly in maths and languages, through the use of technology. It offers the opportunity to provide learners with access to quality educational material, while simultaneously developing their computer literacy, which is a vital skill when entering higher education or the workforce after they leave school.

Many women in the province are also victims of violence on a regular basis, with many of them being abused by their partners and family members.  In many cases this violence is fuelled by alcohol. A StatsSA study found that both victim and perpetrator were reported to have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs in 72.1% of sexual incidents taking place in public spaces and 23.3% of incidents taking place at home.

In order to tackle this problem, the Western Cape Government has also prioritised an Alcohol Harms Reduction Game-Changer, which is focused on reducing the intentional injury and death related to alcohol in communities.  The Game-Changer is targeting three high risk areas namely, Lingelethu West [Khayelitsha], Gunya [Gugulethu and Nyanga] and Drakenstein [Smartie Town, Fairyland and Groenheuwel]. The key performance indicator of the Game-Changer is at least a 10% reduction in Alcohol Related Injuries and Fatalities by 2019 in these three areas.

We aim to do this by focusing on three key levers of change:

• Reducing access to alcohol ;
• Enhancing participation in recreational alternatives and facilitating access to alternative economic pathways; and
• Enhancing quality of alcohol-related health and social services.

Critical to achieving the targets set under our Alcohol Harms Reduction Game-Changer is close collaboration between key partners and stakeholders including the City of Cape Town and the Drakenstein municipality. Most importantly, our game-changer aims to engage with community members in new and innovative ways in order for them to become directly involved in making their communities safer and to change their behaviour when it comes to consuming alcohol.

We believe these four Game-Changers will make a major contribution towards enabling young girls to become educated, responsible and empowered young adults, who have the necessary skills to support themselves in the future.

The Department of Social Development has a programme aimed at combating gender-based violence. In the Western Cape, as in the rest of South Africa, gender-based violence is a serious problem. Gender-based violence encompasses, physical, sexual and emotional/ psychological violence. Several studies have shown that in South Africa more than 40% of women have experienced violence in their lifetime. A study in 2014 by Gender Links, shows that in the Western Cape, over 36% of women interviewed have experienced violence.

Gender-based violence is a result of the unequal distribution of power in society between women and men. Often women, due to their lower socio-economic status, have fewer options and fewer resources at their disposal to avoid or escape abusive situations and to seek justice.

Gender-based violence includes, but is not limited to, domestic violence, sexual violence by non-partners, marital rape, date rape, stalking, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, domestic homicides and harmful traditional practices such as forced child marriages and female genital mutilation. Women also experience violence across the course of their lives in different ways and contexts, and many forms of violence are perpetuated against women of all ages. Violence against women can also transcend national boundaries, and available data suggest that South Africa is a source, transit and destination country for women subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. Traffickers control victims through intimidation and threats, use of force, withholding of passports, debt bondage, and forced use of drugs and alcohol.

While violence against women cuts across boundaries of age, race, culture, wealth and geography, there are particular groups of women who are especially prone to be targeted for violence. These include, but are not limited to, women with disabilities; destitute women; women in institutions or in detention; older women; lesbians, bisexual and transgender women; and women living with HIV and AIDS. Migrant and refugee women and children are also disproportionally exposed to violence because they often lack local support structures and family protection.

The Department of Social Development has several programmes to address vulnerable communities, such as vulnerable older persons, people with disabilities, people who abuse substances, child protection and the strengthening of families through care and support.

The programme that mainly focuses on gender-based violence is the Victim Empowerment Programme. The role of the Department of Social Development in Victim Empowerment is two-pronged.  According to the National Policy guideline for Victim Empowerment, DSD is to lead the government’s response in the empowerment of victims. This entails the coordination, establishment and development of inter-sectoral mechanisms, interventions and partnerships to ensure that, as a government, services to victims are offered seamlessly. The other mandated role is that of care and protection of vulnerable groups. In order to fulfil this role the Department has focused, to a large extent, on victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse, and therefore has developed programs such as shelters and other psycho-social support services.

The Department of Social Development Victim Empowerment Programme, supported by service providers in the Western Cape, offers a variety of services to support victims which include:

• ensuring that victims receive emotional and practical support,

• assisting victims with the management of trauma,

• ensuring that victims are educated to identify the symptoms of post- traumatic stress,

• referring victims to professional services where necessary,

• providing victims with counselling,

• providing victims with emergency services,

• ensuring that the criminal justice process is dealt with efficiently,

• promoting the rights and responsibilities of victims through advocacy,

• ensuring that victims are aware of their rights and access to shelter services.

The Department of Social Development funds 16 shelters. A shelter is a safe place where victims of crime and violence are able to live for a period of one day up to approximately 3 months depending on the needs of the victims. In the shelter, attention is also given to economic empowerment of women to enable them to live independently and break the cycle of violence.

The Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning offers the Western Cape Regional Socio-Economic Programme [RSEP] and Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading [VPUU] Programme to address some of the challenges experienced by women in the province.

1. The RSEP/VPUU Programme aims to improve the safety of women in public spaces by creating safe walkways along popular pedestrian routes. Through the VPUU Programme in Harare, Khayelitsha, a pedestrian walkway was constructed between Harare’s residential areas and the Khayelitsha Railway Station. Active Boxes are found every 500 metres or so along the route. An Active Box is a small multi-functional community centre that positively activates the space, acts as a landmark and improves surveillance owing to the vertical design of the building. Thus, should a woman feel unsafe walking along this route, she can access a safe space every 500 metres.

VPUU’s work in Harare has inspired interventions in other VPUU and RSEP focus areas.  The DEA&DP RSEP/VPUU Programme Office has conducted pedestrian surveys in both Vredenburg and Worcester, which are both RSEP focus areas. From these surveys, it is clear that women do not feel safe when walking, yet they are compelled to walk as public transport is either not available or is too expensive. Furthermore, women often have to walk very long distances when taking their children to school and/or walking to work. Through the pedestrian surveys, it is possible to identify the key routes used by pedestrians and then provide safety interventions along these routes, including improved lighting and increased surveillance.

2. Through the VPUU Programme, the concept of ‘Emthonjeni’ was created and can be described as a multifunctional public space that is typically located around a water tap and clothes washing point.  In Monwabisi Park, an informal settlement just south of Harare, Khayelitsha, Emthonjeni also became spaces to provide outreach Early Childhood Development [ECD] services. An Emthonjeni provides women with a space to congregate, socialise, collect fresh water and do their washing while their children learn and play.

One of the core elements of the VPUU Strategy is working towards the goal of universal access to ECD. This is a priority in the VPUU areas of Paarl East, Villiersdorp, Gugulethu-Nyanga and Khayelitsha where there are ongoing efforts to increase the number of ECD facilities that are registered and have improved access to subsidy funds.

While ECD specifically benefits children and influences their development throughout their lives, it is the mothers of these children that also benefit as having access to safe, affordable ECD facilities for their children allows women to be economically active and more self-sufficient thus serving to empower women.

3. Another element of the VPUU Strategy is to improve access to effective legal and justice systems with a particular focus on gender-based violence. To this end, one of VPUU’s projects in all of the areas in which they operate is the development of a strategy to reduce sexual abuse and gender-based and domestic violence; for example, through the provision of training and awareness campaigns, workshops on reporting cases of abuse and providing professional counselling to victims.

In the VPUU areas of Paarl East and Villiersdorp, VPUU is engaging with service providers to support and provide legal services to victims of gender-based violence. Service providers have been active for a few years in the other VPUU areas of Khayelitsha and Gugulethu-Nyanga where thousands of victims have been assisted and supported, and community members have been educated through workshops and awareness campaigns. 

Furthermore, VPUU plays a leading role in implementing the Alcohol Harms Reduction Game-Changer. Since substance abuse is one of the primary contributing factors to domestic violence, the Game-Changer could lead to a decrease in the prevalence of alcohol-related gender-based violence incidents.

Other programmes offered by the Western Cape Government and focusing, primarily on women and children include:

Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport

1. The Department facilitates work opportunities and various capacity-building opportunities aimed at young women. Through such, the young women acquire skills to facilitate their entry into the job market.
2. DCAS introduced unemployed youth with disabilities to a two-week skills training workshop at the Voorbrug and Greyton Disability Forum in Genadendal.

The majority of the aspiring crafters are unemployed and they represent the 18 to 35 year old females with various forms of disabilities in the Overberg region.

The skills transfer to local people making jewellery from paper beads will be rolled out for the entire year in this region. It will equip them as crafters and enable them to access local markets in the Overberg, with the possibility of economic and financial sustainability of their products.

Department of Social Development

1. On a quarterly basis, the Department provides programmes to strengthen parenting skills.
2. The Department also conducts education and information programmes, which aimed at educating communities on reporting procedures in respect of child abuse and neglect of children.

Department of Local Government

1. The Community Development Workers, in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, established food gardens for women
2. The Department has conducted trafficking awareness programmes in all district municipalities. In this regard, more than 280 farmworkers and children have been educated on the dangers of human trafficking and “ukuthwala” [young girls forced to marry older men].

Department of Health

1. Free health services are provided to all pregnant women. 
2. The department of Health is participating in the Alcohol Harms Reduction programme. Alcohol Harms Reduction programme is part of PSG3.
3. The province has 6 Thuthuzela Care Centres [TCCs] that deal with adult & child survivors of sexual offences.