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Govt Announcement Of Safe Havens For Abused Women And Children Welcomed

From left Western Cape Social Development MEC Sharna Fernandez, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille and Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu make an announcement on the fight against gender-based violence on 4 March 2020. Picture: @DepartmentPWI/Twitter

The announcement by government that six government-owned properties in the Western Cape would be made available to be used as safe havens for women and children has been welcomed.

Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille made the announcement earlier on Wednesday.

These properties will be situated in the Garden Route, the West Coast and the central Karoo.

Provincial Social Development MEC Sharna Fernandez said that this initiative would go a long way in ensuring the safety of women and kids who had been abused.

“I think the issue of safe houses has always been… the fact that we’ve never had enough and that every place we’ve identified on exactly those areas that we’ve been focusing on.”

Fernandez said that in 2019, more than 4,600 women were reported to have been raped in the Western Cape, of which 205 were aged up to 9-years-old.

EWN

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