Ramaphosa’s new GBVF measures face familiar question: what will change?

President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered a review of unresolved GBVF cases and safety audits in every municipality after the deaths of women in and around Ekurhuleni.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a series of new measures to intensify the country’s response to gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) following the killing of at least 11 women in Ekurhuleni since July.

The president outlined a four-point plan that includes a national case recovery operation into unresolved GBVF cases, a funded plan to reduce forensic backlogs within 60 days, safety audits in every municipality, and the intensified enforcement of liquor laws and by-laws.

I have directed the Minister of Police, the National Commissioner of Police and the relevant forensic authorities to present, within 60 days, a funded plan to reduce forensic backlogs and establish clear turnaround standards for priority gender-based violence and femicide cases.

While the government aims to address these systemic failures, the announcement has been met with skepticism from non-profit organizations. Critics argue that the proposed measures are a repetition of existing plans that have failed to produce tangible results over the past seven years.

And I can’t see that anything’s going to change if we’ve got these long timeframes…The president is saying the same thing, but I’m just going to give you 60 days.