GBV shelters battle funding challenges, a threat to work

The National Shelter Movement of South Africa (NSMSA) has highlighted the underfunding of shelters as a key challenge in their lifesaving work with gender-based violence (GBV) survivors.

As the 16 Days of Activism against GBV campaign drew to a close on Tuesday, NSMSA said it deplored the systemic failures exposed in the Public Protector’s latest report on GBV released earlier this year, and said it painted a harrowing picture of survivors left stranded by the justice system.

NSMSA – an umbrella organisation supporting over 100 GBV shelters – said underfunding has placed strain on the country’s shelters.

“This report confirms what shelters have known – and endured – for years.

Survivors turn to shelters when every other system fails them.

But shelters cannot continue to do this lifesaving work in the face of chronic underfunding on top of systemic dysfunction – which includes severe delays in GBV case resolutions, poor police responses, and inadequate survivor protection measures and inadequate administrative processes,” the NSMSA said.

The umbrella body said these failures not only prolong survivors’ trauma, which exposes them to secondary victimisation, but also creates an unsustainable burden on shelters.

The Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children (SBCWC) chairperson Bernadine Bachar said:

“This underfunding by government departments is having an effect on the services we can provide to GBV survivors and their families.

“We can see this quite clearly in examples in Gauteng over the last six months where shelters have had to suspend operations because their funding hadn’t come through timeously and at the end of the day the people who lose out with this lack of commitment are those that need it the most.

“We need an all-of-society approach that includes the private sector, government departments and those who work in the GBV sector to all work together. It is not enough that we only do response work but we also need to be doing the work to prevent GBV so we are not sitting in the place for the next generation,” said Bachar.

Ilitha Labantu spokesperson, Siyabulela Monakali said there is an immediate need for increased funding for shelters and GBV service providers to ensure they can continue offering critical support.

“Ilitha Labantu also stresses the importance of ensuring that recommendations in the Public Protector’s report lead to enforceable changes. Too often, reforms have been promised but never delivered. The government must act on these findings with accountability and commitment to real, lasting change.”

In her keynote address concluding the annual 16 Days campaign, minister for Women, Youth and People with Disabilities, Sindisiwe Chikunga, said the inaugural National Gender-Based Violence Study will serve as a guide for immediate action.

“The recommendations of this study will contribute to our ongoing focus on prevention, enhanced protection for victims, and ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable. We are currently incorporating it into our five-year strategic plan for the 7th administration.

“We will also continue to mobilise funding from both public and private sector sources to ensure that our interventions against GBVF are adequately resourced,” said Chikunga.

Cape Times