Victim support Bill threatens closure of shelters

Johannesburg shelters are calling the Victim Support Services Bill a ‘knee-jerk reaction’ to the scourge of gender-based violence. A Sunday Times Daily report says the Victim Support Services Bill was drafted by the Department of Social Development to provide a framework for services to protect the rights of victims and ensure they have access to support programmes. But shelters said the Bill in its current form was too stringent and could result in shelters closing. How many shelters house abused women and their children is unknown, but the National Shelter Movement of SA has about 90 across the country. There are 24 in Gauteng, 23 in the Western Cape and 14 in Mpumalanga which will be affected by the Bill. Bridget Edwards, from Johannesburg’s Bethany House for Abused Women, said the draft Bill was a knee-jerk reaction by the government after outrage about GBV figures released during lockdown.

Further unintended consequences have been highlighted. Sino Mdunjeni, from Cape Town’s Rape Crisis Centre, said, in essence, the draft Bill ‘looks to criminalise anyone who does not adhere to regulations that would not actually contribute to the improvement of the services provided to victims of crime’. The Sunday Times Daily report says, Alison Tilley, head of advocacy and special projects at the Open Democracy Advice Centre, added: ‘If you provide a room for a domestic violence victim or give spiritual counselling to someone who got hijacked, the Bill will make you register. If you don’t, that’s a criminal offence. People aren’t going to know about it, so you risk people falling foul of the law ... the Bill (in its current form) would not just create more harm than good, but may very well eliminate the victim support sector as we know it.’