Remarks by President Cyril Ramaphosa on the signing of the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Bill and the National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill,[...]

Friday, 24 May 2024

Programme Director,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Representatives of the respective Portfolio and Select Committees,
Senior officials,
Development agencies,
Representatives of civil society,
Members of the media,
Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning and thank you for being here.

Today I will be signing into law legislation that will give effect to two undertakings made by this administration when it took office.

The first undertaking was to capacitate and strengthen our law enforcement agencies and the National Prosecuting Authority in the fight against corruption.

The second undertaking was to work with civil society, communities and other sectors to end gender-based violence and femicide.

You will know that last week, here at the Union Buildings, we signed the National Health Insurance Bill into law. We have previously held public signing ceremonies for important legislation like the National Minimum Wage Act and the Constitutional amendment to make South African Sign Language our twelfth official language.

The public signing of transformative legislation promotes transparency and accountability.

It helps to ensure that citizens are aware of the laws that affect them, that they understand what these laws entail, and that they are better empowered to exercise their rights under these laws.

Corruption and gender-based violence are two scourges that plague our country and corrode our social fabric.

As we mark 30 years of democracy, we know that our aspiration to be a truly free and equal society cannot be achieved for as long as criminals steal the resources meant for the benefit of the people, and for as long as this country's women and children do not feel safe and free to walk our streets.

The two pieces of legislation that I will sign today form part of government's efforts to strengthen institutions, develop partnerships and build state capacity.

The first piece of legislation facilitates the establishment of a National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.

This statutory body will coordinate and provide strategic leadership to the fight against GBV and femicide.

It will be multi-sectoral, drawing on the expertise of all stakeholders, including civil society, labour and business.

Establishing this Council was one of the resolutions of the first Presidential Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, which I convened in 2018.

Since then, working together, we have made important progress.

The National Strategic Plan on Gender-based Violence was developed, together with civil society, as a society-wide response to this national emergency.

We have founded the Women's Economic Assembly, collaborating with civil society and business. This initiative aims to integrate women-owned enterprises into industry value chains, promote sustainable economic development, and empower women economically.

Around R21 billion was dedicated over the medium term to the implementation of the six pillars of the plan, including the economic empowerment of women.

We enacted new laws to strengthen the response of the criminal justice system to gender-based violence. We have worked to improve the support provided to survivors of gender-based violence through the establishment of new Thuthuzela Care Centres, new Sexual Offences Courts and victim-friendly rooms at nearly all police stations across the country.

Through these efforts, we have seen improvements in conviction rates and in stricter sentencing.

While this progress is welcome, our greatest task is to prevent gender-based violence from being perpetrated in the first place.

We want to end, once and for all, the violence that men perpetrate against women.

That is why everyone in society needs to be involved.

Even as we have made progress in implementing the National Strategic Plan, we have all recognised the need for the national response to be more coordinated between the different stakeholders.

We need a national effort that is more inclusive, more focused and better resourced.

We are confident that this Council will provide much of what we need and will further strengthen the national effort to eradicate violence against women and children.

I wish to congratulate Parliament, the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, other government stakeholders, development partners and UN agencies for their efforts to bring us to this point.

I also wish to thank civil society organisations, whose tireless advocacy for this Council to be established has come to fruition.

I believe we will continue to count on your support, as well as the support of labour and business, in this all-of-society effort to combat the pandemic of gender-based violence.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The signing into law of the National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill will establish an Investigating Directorate against Corruption as a permanent entity within the NPA.

It has been five years since we established an Investigating Directorate within the NPA to investigate cases of corruption and other serious crimes arising from the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

These are five years in which great progress has been made.

To date, the Investigating Directorate has taken 39 state capture and corruption cases to court, involving 212 accused persons and 68 accused entities.

In the last five years, the NPA has also 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.

The Investigating Directorate against Corruption will be able to reap the benefits of collaboration with the private sector and other social partners.

By way of example, efforts are underway as part of the partnership between 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.

When prosecutors obtain convictions before independent courts for serious crimes like corruption, they not only hold those responsible accountable. They also strengthen the rule of law.

Today we are taking another important step in our quest to promote accountability.

The criminal actions of those involved in corruption and the perpetrators of gender-based violence may differ in nature, but the consequences of both are devastating.

Corruption and gender-based violence are affronts to the human dignity that is the inalienable right of every South African.

These forms of criminality are holding our country back and preventing us from realising our full potential.

The signing of these two Acts signal our determination to continue to build an ethical, capable state with strong institutions that can deliver on their mandate of improving the lives of every South African.

I call on all stakeholders, in government, in business, in labour and across civil society to support the effort to make these two new entities a success.

I thank you.