An all-too-common scenario is for women to die with a protection order in their hand, a tragic loss of a life that could have been prevented if there were fewer systemic gaps in providing services to victims of domestic violence. These gaps can be plugged through localised multi-stakeholder, community-coordinated solutions using existing resources within the community.
This is according to Advocate Tarisai Mchuchu-Macmillan, Executive Director at MOSAIC Training, Service & Healing Centre, pointing to the alarmingly high instances of domestic violence, despite the Domestic Violence Act (of 1998) providing clear and precise instructions to be enacted by state actors to ensure the protection of victims of violence.
"While we know that victims are coming forward to seek protection through domestic violence protection orders, we still have too many instances of victims not being afforded the protection as intended by legislation, and these gaps in our protection order system are reflected in the crime statistics." According to the latest South African Police Services (SAPS) quarterly crime statistics, survivors opened 50 124 cases of assault with the police. In that same period, 1643 people were murdered either in their homes or in the perpetrator's home.
Guest: Advocate Tarisai Mchuchu-Macmillan, Executive Director at MOSAIC Training, Service & Healing Centre,