The Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities has launched its 16 Days of Activism Campaign, ‘No Violence Against Women and Children’ at the Johannesburg Exhibition Center in Nasrec.
This year’s campaign is aimed at expanding social and economic opportunities for women.
The goal is to break the bonds of economic dependence of women who are forced to remain in abusive relationships.
The department’s director-general, Mikateka Maluleke, says: “Today’s topic focuses on the fifth pillar of the National Strategic Plan to Combat Gender-Based Violence and Femicide. You know the president launched the NSP on GBV, so the fifth component is focused on economic empowerment, so we realized that women will not walk away from an abuser unless they have economic empowerment.”
“So the first focus is to empower women to leave and the second is to empower women as women who should also be involved in business. The government always talks about empowering women, but even if you bring women into production, if you don’t create a market for women to go and sell their products, they will still end up poor, sitting there with all this.”
Launch of Nasrec’s 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women and Children Campaign:
Umlazi
To mark the launch of the 16 Days of Activism campaign, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube will spend the day visiting various locations in Umlazi, as the township was identified as one of the top 10 rape hotspots in the country in the latest crime statistics.
Dube-Ncube will also visit Umlazi GG Police Station and Prince Mshieni Tutuzela Memorial Hospital, which is a one-stop facility for survivors of sexual, gender-based and domestic violence.
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