The executive director at the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA), Sibongile Ndashe says they are considering challenging the National Council on GBV and Femicide Bill.
The bill was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa two months ago.
The bill is aimed at fighting gender-based violence (GBV) and investigating high-profile corruption cases.
The legislation on GBV is to establish the National Council on GBV and Femicide and is dedicated to the safety and security of women through a collective approach to combat violence against women.
However, Ndashe said the legislation was set up to help the institutional framework to respond to gender-based violence and femicide.
She said when they supported the bill it was based on the government establishing a fund that was going to resource the response on GBV, adding that it was not about talking about different forms of violence, saying there are other pieces of legislation that spoke to that.
“We are entering the 7th administration with a different message from the government compared to how we entered the 6th administration when we were very collaborative.
“We have wasted an entire administration by being strung along into pointless meetings by the government. When the movement for total shutdown started in 2018, we agreed on the following framework, this legislation just came into effect very recently, so we spent six years on it.
“This legislation that has been passed has serious defects and it is not fit for purpose. It will not help us coordinate the response. It has been the most disrespectful way of engaging with society over a period of six years,” Ndashe said.
She said the act the passed into law was very contradictory to what they had agreed on during the past two presidential summits.
∎ The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Amendment Bill led to the NPA Act to establish the Investigating Directorate against Corruption.
This directorate would incorporate the Investigating Directorate (ID) established five years ago within the NPA to investigate corruption, and other serious crimes identified by the commission of inquiry into state capture.
According to Ramaphosa the ID has seen progress in the five years, including taking 39 state capture and corruption cases to court which involved 212 accused people and 68 accused entities.
The president further said in the past five years, the NPA had secured the conviction of almost 700 government officials for corruption.
“The NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit has restrained and preserved ‘state capture’ assets to the value of more than R14 billion. Over R6 billion has been recovered so far. The Investigating Directorate against Corruption will be a permanent, prosecution-led agency with full criminal investigative powers. This legislation will help to overcome challenges with capacity and expertise within the NPA to investigate and prosecute complex corruption cases.
“The Investigating Directorate against Corruption will be able to recruit and retain specialist skills to deliver on its mandate. Permanent criminal investigators will be appointed, with full police powers,” he said.
Ramaphosa concluded by saying the ID would be able to reap benefits against fighting corruption by collaborating with the private sector and other social partners.
“By way of example, efforts are under way as part of the partnership between the government and business to create a Digital Evidence Unit specialising in the identification, collection, analysis and presentation of digital evidence. Prosecution is a state’s most serious and credible instrument of accountability,” the president said.
The Star