During the global 16 days of activism campaign against violence against women and children, South African shelters for such victims fear a lack of funding could lead to many of them returning to their abusers or living on the streets.
This is against the backdrop of the South African Medical Research Council’s gender and health research unit’s fourth annual national femicide study in October revealing that the country still has one of the highest femicide rates in the world.
“Shelters remain underfunded and overstretched, so they become unable to meet the growing demand for safe spaces and, down the line, if a lack of funding continues, it is a fear that femicide rates will continue to increase,” said National Shelter Movement of South Africa director Zubeda Dangor.
According to the crime statistics for the second quarter 2024, July to September, 957 women were murdered, 106 of them in instances of domestic violence.
The National Shelter Movement of South Africa — an umbrella organisation serving 103 shelters — says while femicide cases continue to increase, shelters have become strapped beyond capacity because of the non-payment of funding from the department of social development.
As a result, People Opposing Women Abuse (Powa) was forced to close its 10-bed shelter on Johannesburg’s West Rand in October 2023. Earlier this year, Powa’s East Rand shelter had to close its doors for six months before receiving money from the department.
According to Powa’s counselling services manager Jeanette Sera, the department cited non-compliance with safety measures for stopping the funding. While the organisation concedes that basic standards should be maintained for the safety and security of those staying at the shelters, Sera said compliance certification comes at a cost.
“We are a non-governmental organisation — we depend on funding to take care of stuff like that … We agree that there is a standard to uphold but health certification and other compliance certification costs money. Where should we get that from?” Sera said to the Mail & Guardian.
Due to funding constraints, the organisation could not pay most of its workers’ salaries from April to June this year, Powa executive director Fatima Shaik said. This resulted in the shelter closing its counselling services.
“Many of our employees did not get paid during those months, others took a 41% salary cut, because there was simply not enough money to take care of the needs of our beneficiaries and pay salaries,” Shaik said.
Fourteen of the 20 shelters that form part of the Western Cape Women’s Shelter Movement also face closure imminently if they are not able to raise emergency funding, according to chairperson of the movement Delene Roberts.
“Shelters are unable to raise sufficient funds to cover the deficit in their budgets after the allocation of funding received from the department of social development,” Roberts said.
One of these shelters might have to close at the end of December, while many of them will probably only survive for another two to three months.
The Bet Sheekoom House of Restoration for Women in Crisis in Port Elizabeth, which has been running for 20 years, has faced similar funding problems with the government which its executive director Gary Koekemoer described as “not sustainable”.
“Most funds do not fund workers, and are only for a period of one year at a time, which makes it difficult to plan for the long term,” he told the M&G.
According to government’s 2023 data, the department of social development was allocated more than R211 million for a period of four years towards 134 shelters rendering victim-support services across the country.
In October, the Gauteng department of social development returned R554 million in unspent funds to the treasury, leaving gender-based violence shelters to cope on their own.
The government’s erratic payments are the reason why the Frida Hartley Shelter in Yeoville, Johannesburg, which opened in 1922, chose to remain privately funded.
“With government funding you have so many issues, from non-payment, which many shelters are struggling with, to government regulations that you have to follow — that is why we are privately funded by various corporations and churches,” the shelter’s manager Cheryl Hlabane told the M&G.
According to Hlabane, shelters funded by the department of social services also face a skills gap with their staff.
“They don’t have money, so you start to see that the right staff are not being employed, which can influence the quality of services being provided to the people in the shelters,” she said.
Powa’s Shaik concurred, saying she feared the skills gap could trigger a “second Life Esidemeni tragedy”.
Between October 2015 and June 2016, 1 711 people were relocated from mental health facilities operated by Life Esidimeni to unlicensed facilities which resulted in the death of 144 caused by starvation and neglect.
Meanwhile, the Gauteng government is reported to provide R45 per day per beneficiary for three meals a day at shelters. This is according to the National Shelter Movement of South Africa, which represents 98 shelters across the country.
The Nisaa shelter in Johannesburg, which receives R160 per person per day from the department of social development, previously told the M&G that it is “stretched beyond capacity” because the actual cost of catering for the needs of victims of domestic violence are approximately R320 per person.
According to Koekermoer, the Bet Sheekoom shelter has a budget of R7 500 per person a month, about R250 a day.
While the National Strategic Plan on gender-based violence and femicide is widely regarded as a crucial framework for tackling this “second pandemic”, the National Shelter Movement of South Africa said “its implementation has been insufficient, often due to funding”.
The movement said it supports demands by parliament’s portfolio committee on social development for accountability and progress updates on the strategic plan and calls for the urgent finalisation of the National Integrated Strategy on the Prevention of Femicide.
“The lack of a national strategy on femicide undermines efforts to combat this crisis,” Dangor told the M&G.
The department of social development had not responded to the M&G’s questions by the time of publication.
Some survivors of gender-based violence residing in shelters told the M&G that they feared the government was not making decisions that could protect them.
“They are out of touch with victims and they don’t understand the urgency of laws implemented to assist victims like myself who faced abuse since their teenage years and we get to watch our perpetrators walk free,” said 29-year-old Mary*, who gave birth to two children while still a teenager.
“The shelters don’t make us feel as if they don’t have money, but when you hear of other shelters closing, as a woman, you wonder if your shelter will be next and where will I go? I don’t want to share a bed again with a man that took away my dignity,” 34-year-old Simphiwe* shared.
“It is a scary thought that we, as women who faced abuse, will not have anywhere to go because the government does not find the need to assist us, but when they require votes, they rally up at the doors for a tick on the ballot,” said 27-year-old Tracy*.
*The names have been changed to conceal their identity.
