Northern Cape Premier calls for collaboration to fight GBV

Northern Cape Premier Zamani Saul believes collaboration between the Department of Education and Social Development is needed to fight the scourge of rape and Gender Based Violence.

“Rapes are happening at the residence of the perpetrators or the victim and child rapes, your sexual assaults, they happen at the residence of one of the two. I think this is a reflection of the nature of the family unit. If we want to implement change it means we have to increase the number of social workers that we have and allocate a social worker per ward. I think that might assist.”

The Northern Cape has recorded an increase of domestic violence cases compared to the previous financial year. Provincial Police Commissioner Koliswa Otola announced this during the release of crime statistics for the first quarter of 2024/2025.

The province recorded a thousand domestic violence cases compared to 800 cases last year. The Commissioner says even though murder cases have declined significantly, rape in schools remains a huge challenge.

“We make sure that we investigate thoroughly and arrest immediately where possible to deter the other cases from coming up. We have campaigns at schools, we do go to schools. We also have cops that are aligned to schools. Each school has a police officer who makes it easier for the children to have someone they know they can communicate with should an incident happen and they need to report it immediately.”

GBV | Calls for tough action against perpetrators in Northern Cape