Cape Town - The Greatest People of South Africa, a Khayelitsha-based NGO, has empowered a team of women with basic paralegal skills to respond to GBV issues in the area, as well as in the surrounding communities.
These 10 women who graduated on the weekend went through three months of vigorous training and would be placed as community-based paralegals to attend to issues of GBV and human rights violations in various areas.
Chairperson Zintle Khobeni said the programme was established to ensure that marginalised communities riddled with GBV had equal and quality access to the criminal justice system.
“Most victims and survivors of GBV don’t report the crime and this is sometimes due to the failures of the system to successfully prosecute the perpetrators. This leaves victims discouraged.
“Our trainees are equipped with skills to facilitate the process of reporting GBVF crimes to ensure that the police are also taking statements correctly, and further ensure that the victims are in no way intimidated by the criminal justice system.
“The trainees assist victims to also apply for protection orders. Victims who are unable to leave an abusive relationship because they are financially dependent on the perpetrator, are also assisted to apply for child or spousal maintenance,” she said.
Khobeni said with the alarming rate of GBV, there was a great need for community-based officials who can relate to victims and spoke their language. She said the community paralegals have managed to assist victims, survivors and their families to report cases with successful GBVF cases through the court support programmes.
“We have been able to ensure that victims can efficiently reach local magistrate’s courts, most victims sometimes are unable to show up in court due to the lack of financial means.
“With this programme we are able to ensure that they are present in court on time and have a support structure of not only their families, but also of the paralegals,” said Khobeni.
One of the graduates, 19-year-old Mandlakazi Silwanyana said the training had equipped them with the necessary skills needed to help fight the scourge.
“I am grateful for the opportunity and the chance to go to the courts and not only learn how the system works, but most importantly fighting for people’s rights and also conducting informative workshops,” she said.