MPs To Debate The Scourge Of GBV

Parliament is expected to focus its attention on the fight against gender-based violence (GBV) on Tuesday.

A plenary session will debate measures to curb the scourge as a matter of national importance.

The debate, titled the scourge of gender-based violence against women and femicide, comes amid a spate of women killings across the country.

So prevalent is GBV that the parliamentary debate would not be the first of its kind in the space of a year.

In September, the National Assembly debated the matter following the murder and rape of Uyinene Mrwetyana at a Cape Town Post Office.

The ANC went as far as calling for a state of emergency to be declared on GBV and femicide. Among the calls were for perpetrators to get nothing less than life sentences.

The governing party also called for cases of gender-based violence and femicide to be fast-tracked.

More recently, Parliament’s social development committee called on the department to speedily finalise the process of verifying 169 non-profit organisations to provide direct services to victims of gender-based violence so they could receive funding.

EWN