DPWI hands over shelter for gender-based violence in Free State

DPWI Minister, Patricia de Lille, on Thursday handed over the Koffiefontein building to Social Development Minister, Lindiwe Zulu.

The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) has handed over another shelter for gender-based violence (GBV) in the Free State, as government intensifies its efforts to curb the scourge.

DPWI Minister, Patricia de Lille, on Thursday handed over the Koffiefontein building to Social Development Minister, Lindiwe Zulu.

During the joint sitting in the National Assembly regarding GBVF in September 2019, De Lille committed that the DPWI would allocate unoccupied State-owned properties for service delivery purpose, especially to provide shelter to victims of GBV.

The initiative was in response to the country’s Emergency Response Plan (ERP) on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.

At the time, De Lille also committed that the DPWI would use State-owned properties to install anti-GBV messaging as a campaign to show government’s solidarity with communities and families who have been affected by the scourge.

She said: “Since December 2019, the department has handed over five properties in Gauteng to the Department of Social Development. In March 2020, the DPWI handed 6 to the Western Cape Department of Social Development for use as shelters for victims of GBV.”

Since then, she said, officials from DPWI and the National Department of Social Development have criss-crossed the country, assessing available DPWI properties that could be used as shelters for victims of GBV.

“The property here in the Free State is now the latest to be refurbished and handed over from DPWI to the Provincial Department of Social Development for GBV victims.

“Last year, the Free State Department of Social Development stated that there is a shortage of shelters for victims of gender-based violence in the province and this is the case in many other provinces.

“As DPWI we are finalising User Agreements with the provincial departments of social development so that they can have these properties for free once DPWI refurbishes the houses to be fit for habitation by GBV victims.”

Through the User Agreements, it was anticipated that the provincial social development departments would have to appoint NGOs and operationalise the shelters for communities.

She said the DPWI has also completed the refurbishment of another property in Phalaborwa in Limpopo to be handed over to the Provincial Department of Social Development there.

“We will now continue refurbishments on more than 20 other properties in Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape, the Northern Cape, Limpopo and KZN in the next financial year to be handed over to provincial departments of social development to operationalise GBV shelters.

“We are working with the National Department of Social Development to ensure that there is a shelter in all the identified hotspots and in each municipality and metro in the country. As DPWI we are working hard to do our part and contribute to the fight against GBVF by providing safe spaces for women and children who need somewhere to live to escape abuse,” she said.

These shelters, said the Minister, represent a lifeline that could save women and children.

"They represent a new start and hopefully a place of healing. We are committed to pushing our work in this regard and will be handing over more shelters in other provinces in the coming months.

“DPWI is also making good progress with installing anti-GBVF billboards at police stations in hot spot areas across the country with 20 billboards installed in seven provinces,” she said.

In this regard, the Department recently installed billboards at Bloemspruit, Zamdela, Thabong and Phuthadichaba police stations in the Free State.

“We are also finalising the installation of more billboards by the end of this year in the Western Cape at the Caledon, Bredasdorp, Lainsburg, Paarl and Beaufort West police stations.

Next year, the DPWI will install billboards at police stations in hotspot areas in Limpopo and the Eastern Cape, the only two remaining provinces.

(With Inputs from South African Government Press Release)