Housing Women Who Have Experienced Abuse: Policy, Funding and Practice [Mpumalanga]

The Domestic Violence Act (DVA) was promulgated in 1998 to respond to the high rates of domestic violence in the country. The purpose of the Act was to “afford victims of domestic violence the maximum protection from domestic abuse that the law can provide”. The DVA places a number of legal duties on the South African Police Services (SAPS) in relation to the protection of victims of abuse including helping them to find suitable shelter. The Act, as well as the corresponding National Instructions (7/1999) to the police on domestic violence, clearly asserts the rights of victims to access shelters, however, a key criticism of this legislative framework is that it does not stipulate whose statutory duty it is to provide and fund these shelters. There is currently no national government directive or funding model on the distribution of funds to shelters. This has resulted in the haphazard and inadequate resourcing of shelters throughout the country.

This report is the second of a series of shadow reports that the Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF) and the National Shelter Movement of South Africa (NSM) have produced in their ‘Enhancing State Responsiveness to Gender Based Violence: Paying the True Costs’ project, which is funded by the European Union.

This report, which was partly produced with the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre to End Violence against Women, sets out existing policy and practice in relation to the provision and funding of shelter services in the Mpumalanga province and considers whether shelters have sufficient resources to meet the legitimate needs of women and children accessing their services.

For more information on the shadow reports, or the HBF/NSM project contact HBF project coordinator, Claudia Lopes on 021 4616266 or e-mail to claudia.lopes@za.boell.org or NSM Director, Zubeda Dangor, on011 854 5804 or e-mail to zubeda@nisaa.org.za

For more about the National Shelter Movement, refer to www.nisaa.org.za.
For more about the Heinrich Boell Foundation, refer to www.za.boell.org.