GBV survivors bear the brunt of government's budget cuts
The Department of Social Development's hands are tied after National Treasury cut the health budget by 4.9% for 2023/2024.
Budget cuts include a freeze on hiring staff, scrapping non-essential travel and delaying the purchase of any equipment until the end of March this year. Picture: Pexels
CAPE TOWN - Gender-Based Violence (GBV) service providers have expressed concern about the impact national government's budget cuts are having on the sector.
Last year, the National Treasury cut the health budget by 4.9% for 2023/2024 before urging provincial departments to curb spending.
The budget cuts include a freeze on hiring staff, scrapping non-essential travel and delaying the purchase of any equipment until the end of March this year.
In the Western Cape, staff at Khayelitsha District Hospital's Thuthuzela Care Centre spoke to Eyewitness News about how their services have been affected recently.
Hospital staff - who spoke on condition of anonymity - alleged that management had been instructed not to schedule locum doctors and nurses from 21 December 2023 until the end of January 2024.
Allegedly management had been further instructed to refer GBV patients who receive specialised care to emergency care for treatment along with general trauma victims.
This has raised concern about the 72-hour window period for GBV patients to receive HIV medicine and the collection of evidence being put at risk.
Western Cape Health Department spokesperson Byron La Hoe said the provincial government is aware of the problem and has acted to remedy the situation.
"The department has temporarily enlisted the help of agency services to cover operations. this measure is expected to reduce waiting times at the facility until operations return to full capacity," La Hoe said.
La Hoe said the department will continue redistributing its resources to ease the burden.
GBV Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) executive director Bronwyn Moore believes the looming austerity measures will have a significant impact on GBV victims.
Moore told Eyewitness News that GBV service providers in the Western Cape have been told that conditional grants will be reduced by R642 million in 2024.
She said GBV service providers are now being asked to take care of sexual violence victims as well as domestic violence cases, and as a result, caseloads are now running into the hundreds per month.
"With the austerity, there won't be new social workers appointed to assist us. So, services are going to suffer. We can't appoint new people if we don't have a budget. So, the numbers are increasing. The trauma is increasing, and the budgets are decreasing," Moore said.
Masimanyane Women’s Rights International executive director Doctor Lesley Ann Foster told Eyewitness News that a lack of doctors in the Eastern Cape is leaving GBV survivors without proper care.
Dr Foster believes the lack of doctors in that province is a systemic problem.
"It means that women are not getting optimal service. They are not being attended to timeously. So, some of them have to wait for long periods of time and that's a very big challenge that we face," Dr Foster said.
Dr Foster said with the budget cuts now looming, the sector will have to look at other ways to create funding.
She said the New GBV Response Fund is one mechanism that should be helping GBV survivors get proper care.
Dr Foster says these measures have been in place for a while and have had success in the past, but it's not enough.
"Overall, the GBV sector continues to struggle to secure enough funding to meet the extent of the problem we have with GBV in the country."
Dr Foster says systemic failures have now spurred service providers to turn to civil society for assistance.
The Department of Social Development has yet to answer Eyewitness News' queries for a response.