CoGTA Minister working on finding solutions to end GBVF

Minister of Corporative Governance and
Traditional Affairs

The Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister, Velenkosini Hlabisa says he’ll meet with the inter-governmental committee on disaster management to discuss solutions to end gender-based violence and femicide.

On Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared GBVF a national disaster.

President Cyril Ramaphosa: Here in South Africa, we have declared gender-based violence and femicide a national crisis.

We have agreed, among all social partners, that we need to take extraordinary and concerted action using every means at our disposal to end this crisis.… pic.twitter.com/IJZoM3JDC2

— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) November 24, 2025

This is despite the fact that the National Disaster Management Centre earlier this month rejected Women for Change SA’s petition to declare GBVF a national disaster.

The centre has now reversed its position and says that GBVF meets the threshold for a potential disaster.

Hlabisa says the meeting will focus on strengthening support for existing response structures.

“The classification, firstly, allows all departments and all provinces and municipalities to revisit their existing budgets and review where they can review to make resources available to deal with the crisis on hand. This afternoon we will be activating the intergovernmental committee and by the end of the week, we are going to get feedback as to how they are going to respond in terms of the available resources. “

Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga says the government stands with women and welcomes the President’s pronouncement yesterday classifying gender–based violence as a crisis