![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
Abstract
As many as one in two South African women is subjected to violence at the hands of her intimate partner. To combat such abuse, the South African government passed the Domestic Violence Act in 1998. This article draws on annual budget votes as well as previous research to examine what budget has been allocated towards the Act's implementation. Finding little evidence for such financial planning, it then presents research costing the implementation of the Act at nine sites in three provinces. The actual daily expenditure on the Act suggests that it is both under-funded and under-prioritised. Budgets then are clearly an aspect of policy formulation and implementation that needs to be engaged with by those concerned with advancing gender equality. However, very few spaces exist in which to contest government departments' budgets. Lack of budget and absence of political space demonstrates weak political accountability to women.
Notes
1. This study surveyed 1,306 women in three South African provinces and found that 27 per cent of women in the Eastern Cape, 28 per cent of women in Mpumalanga and 19 per cent of women in the Northern Province had been physically abused in their lifetimes by a current or ex-partner. The same study investigated the prevalence of emotional and financial abuse experienced by women in the year prior to the study and found that 51 per cent of women in the Eastern Cape, 50 per cent in Mpumalanga and 40 per cent in Northern Province were subjected to these types of abuse. National figures for intimate femicide (men's killing of their intimate female partners) suggest that this most lethal form of domestic violence is prevalent in South Africa. In 1999 8.8 per 100,000 of the female population aged 14 years and older died at the hands of their partners – the highest rate ever reported in research anywhere in the world (Mathews et al., Citation2004).
2. Acts constituting domestic violence include physical, sexual, emotional, verbal and psychological abuse; economic abuse; intimidation; harassment; stalking; damage to property; entry into the complainant's residence without consent, where the parties do not share the same residence; and any other controlling or abusive behaviour where such conduct harms, or may cause imminent harm to the safety, health or well-being of the complainant.
3. Domestic relationships covered by the DVA include: married, divorced or separated couples; couples living together (including gay or lesbian couples); parents of a child; family members (including the extended family); people who are or were engaged or dating one another – including those circumstances where one party (but not the other) perceives some form of romantic, intimate or sexual relationship to be in existence; children; and people who share or have recently shared the same residence (such as flatmates, housemates).
4. He goes on to say that this is largely a function of our high rates of unemployment that drag down our GDP per capita and so raise the ratio of average salaries to that figure (Altbeker, Citation2005, p. 19).
5. This excludes judges' and magistrates' salaries.
6. These included the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal, High Courts, specialized courts, lower courts, the family advocate, the magistrate's commission, government motor transport, capital works and administration of courts.
7. The other two sub-programmes included witness protection and the Scorpions.
8. The 2001/02 budget vote states that the South African Law Reform Commission finalized legislation around domestic violence in the previous year but this is most improbable, given that the Act had already been passed in 1998.
9. Family Court centres include a divorce court, a maintenance court, Children's Court and family violence court. These centres are located in Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Thohoyandou and Cape Town.
10. This section draws extensively from Vetten, Budlender and Schneider's work in progress.
11. Ideally we had hoped to interview 36 criminal justice system personnel involved in implementing the Act per province, resulting in a total of 108 interviews plus a further four interviews with representatives from the ICD. This reduction in number was the result of some sites having only one person involved with implementing the Act, rather than three. Some sites (usually very busy sites) were also unwilling to make more than one person available for interviews. Some interviews also had to be discarded due to the quality of information provided. These were the interviews involving people who clearly had no experience with the Act but had nonetheless been sent to the interviews anyway.
12. Parenzee et al.'s research (Citation2001, p. 94) monitoring the implementation of the DVA in the Western Cape found that at some courts impoverished women received state aid while at others they did not benefit from this provision in the Act.
13. Few complaints are being reported to the ICD, which is perhaps just as well given their personnel constraints. During the interview the ICD national office it was said that DVA monitors are also special programme officers and also do work around disability, HIV/AIDS, gender and other equity issues. In Gauteng for example, the monitoring is being done by a secretary, as the complaints' officers are too overburdened.
14. Conversion figure provided by Bupendra Makan.
15. Personal communication Lorraine Glanz, 23 September 2005.
16. This is less than the budgets ostensibly available for other Justice activities, including R36 million allocated in 2004/5 to the re-demarcation of magisterial districts, increasing to R40 million in 2005/06 and R44 million in 2006/07. Security at the courts is also of concern to Justice, which allocated R23 million to this item in 2002, allowing the department to secure the houses of 32 judges in the Western Cape. Cash in transit services from private security companies was provided to 184 offices at a cost of R8 million. A further R9 million was spent on the installation of security fencing and lighting. In 2003, R45 million was allocated for security services, which then-Minister Maduna described as still insufficient (see his 2003 budget speech).
17. Mosaic is a community-based organization addressing domestic violence in and around Cape Town and Paarl. The organization offers a range of services to women including counselling, training and legal support. Mosaic Court Support Desks at Wynberg, Goodwood, Belville, Cape Town, Simons Town, Kuilsriver and Paarl courts help applicants, mainly women, complete applications for protection orders. They are not charged by Justice for the use of these courts.
18. See Baloyi.
19. De Rebus, the South African attorneys' journal quoted him as saying, ‘[I]n an institution as vital as the courts and judiciary, one must be very careful in trying to effect savings … if you do not provide the resources that are necessary, you are actually undermining a system which in time … can cease to be a system in which we can take pride.’ (‘Courts must not suffer as “apartheid” debts are paid’, De Rebus, August 2004.)
20. These included a limited analysis of the informal sector, lack of attention to public works programmes (which are required to allocate 60 per cent of jobs created to women) and a failure to evaluate the gender impact of different educational interventions (People's Budget Citation2004–2005, p. 1).
21. The People's Budget Campaign suggests that their campaign has contributed to the expansion of basic free services; the decision to roll out antiretroviral treatment; the extension of the child-support grant; and the adoption of a slightly more appropriate fiscal policy that moves away from the cuts and restrictions of the late 1990s (People's Budget Citation2005–2006, p. 2).
22. Section 77 states ‘A Bill that appropriates money or imposes taxes, levies or duties is a money Bill. A money Bill may not deal with any other matter except a subordinate matter incidental to the appropriation of money or the imposition of taxes, levies or duties. All money Bills must be considered in accordance with the procedure established by section 75. An Act of Parliament must provide for a procedure to amend money Bills before Parliament.’