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Moving towards a non-violent society is a worthy ambition. Count the
Democratic Alliance in. Our Values Charter shows that we stand with
all the hard-working, freedom-loving people of our country who want to
live and raise their families in safe communities. Through our
collective efforts we can – and must – make progress to a non-violent
society.

It is well-known that the abuse of alcohol is a risk factor for
domestic violence, which affects one in four South African women.

Considering the facts, it remains a concern for the Democratic
Alliance that the Northern Cape Liquor Board approves of liquor
license without conducting a sufficient number of compliance
investigations. While it approved 55% of the permanent and 90% of the
occasional liquor license applications made in the 2014/15 year, the
Board rejected only 7% of the total liquor license applications. And
while the Board reports having conducted 2 264 compliance
investigations, it would have had to conduct more than 3 300
investigations just to meet the industry standard for the amount of
licenses it issued in the past financial year.

The Democratic Alliance welcomes the current campaign from the
department of Trade and Industry to curb alcohol abuse in the festive
season. The announcement from the Northern Cape Liquor Board earlier
this week that there will be a programme from their side to enforce
liquor licenses will surely tie in with this commendable campaign.
Handing out liquor licenses like lollipops increases the risk of
violence in our society.

The Democratic Alliance calls on the Liquor Board to count itself in
throughout the year, not just for special occasions, and to exercise
daily restraint in regulating the provincial liquor industry.

Once we have become realistic about the challenges, we can become
everyday activists striving ceaselessly for a non-violent society. It
might be considered trite to say we need three hundred and sixty five
days of activism and not merely sixteen, but it remains true.

Of course, it is easy to arrange a feel few-good activities during
these sixteen days which creates a superficial awareness of the
campaign – but what do we do when the sixteen days have passed? Do we
still count ourselves in or do we brush it off so we can hop on the
next bandwagon?

We need to investigate methods of realising the goal of non-violence
through every celebration hosted by government. How can we hope to be
successful in creating a non-violent society if we confine a
discussion of this importance to these chambers during these sixteen
days alone? Disability Month, for example, overlaps with the Sixteen
Days of Activism Campaign. Surely, there cannot be a better
opportunity to address the fact that girls with disabilities are more
likely to be sexually abused while boys with disabilities are more
likely to be physically abused.

And we need the whole of the criminal justice system to be on the side
of non-violence.

We have recently experienced a wave of violence against police
officers, with more than fifty police officers dying in the line of
duty since January. It is easy to forget that amongst the dead are
women who sacrificed themselves to make our society safer. Those who
patrol our streets at night and those who risk their safety to protect
us, should in turn be protected by us.

As a country, we have a strong framework established by the Domestic
Violence Act to ensure the theoretical safety of each person in her or
his own home. However, the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act
and compliance with protection orders are known to be problematic.

We are all aware of a high-profile incident reported in June where a
woman was seriously assaulted at her home. We need to ask – if a woman
cannot be safe in her own house, if she cannot be safe with a
protection order in her hands and a police officer at her side, how
and when can she be part of a non-violent society? If this sickening
case does not serve as a wake-up call that much work lies ahead in
realising our collective ambition, nothing will.

The South African Police Services must become properly resourced and
adequately trained to ensure that every protection order that is
issued, is upheld. Courts do not issue protection orders because they
have nothing else to do with their time, but because the physical
safety and security of a person is threatened.

The Democratic Alliance supports the message that has been
consistently sent from the Northern Cape High Court this year that
there is no place in our non-violent society for those who violate the
innocent.

If we are realistic and work on a daily basis, if we can count the
whole criminal justice system in, we will make progress towards a
non-violent society. For the sake of our shared future, this must
happen sooner rather than later.

Issued by DA