President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the National Council of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Bill which he believes would help bring an end to violent crimes against women and children in the country. Ramaphosa together with the National Prosecuting Authority signed the Amendment Bill, into law today.

Ramaphosa labelled GBV as a second pandemic in South Africa that needs urgent and immediate attention from government. "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," Ramaphosa said. The President also said that while this progress is welcome, the government's 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," he said, adding that government still needs support from different stakeholders in society as well as the support of labour and business to combat the scourge of gender-based violence.

Ramaphosa also said that 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. Ramaphosa said that since the first Presidential Summit on gender-based violence and femicide in 2018, has been made. "This includes the development of a National Strategic Plan (NSP) on gender-based violence, and the founding of the women's economic assembly, which aims to integrate women-owned enterprises into industry value chains, promote sustainable economic development, and empower women economically, among other things," he said.