Program director
Government officials
Members of the media
Fellow South Africans
Ladies and gentlemen

The NDP reminds all of that by 2030 South Africans should have no fear of crime. Women, children and all those vulnerable should feel protected, as a result gender based violence continue to receive government's focused attention.

President Zuma launched the 16 days of no violence against women and children and the national community based dialogues intended for communities to assist us in getting to the root causes of violence in our communities and homes.

The department of Social Development as the chair of the Inter Ministerial Committee and the lead department in social crimes, victim empowerment sector we. Continue to develop interventions that are informed by communities through project Mikontzo.

The department runs the 24 hour command center for GBV the no is 0800 428 428 (GBV GBV) or send a pls call at *120*7867# which receives more than 1500 calls a day mended by qualified social workers.

To further support the work of the command centre, today we launch the National emergency response team, this team' will be the one's who will take full responsibility for early Intervention and referral, monitor gender based violence incidences reported in the media and deploy the team instantly, provide psycho-social support to all affected, debrief the trauma teams follow up and management of cases towards finalization and will facilitate community dialogues where there are high prevalence of reported cases as part of healing and consolidations of our interventions as government.

This team is constituted by social workers, psychologists specializing in trauma, as well as a professional sign language   Interpreter. This core will identify and request additional services as informed by the situation at hand as GBV Their primary focus but not exclusively.

Tonight we will launch the first service excellence awards for NPO's that partner with government in the implementation of services intended to reduce and address GBV. These awards serve as a very important platform for the sector to jointly acknowledge those men and women who give their time sometimes under very difficult circumstances, they still put their communities first.

On behalf of all South African we wish to celebrate, honor, appreciate and thank them  for  the work they do.

As we celebrate disability rights awareness month, we also acknowledge the impact of GBV amongst women and children with disabilities, we continuously evaluate gaps in our interventions and develop the appropriate and relevant responses.

Later this month we will launch the enhanced command Center that will enable Deaf Women and Children to access the services of the centre.

We will also be launching and distributing personal alarms (memeza) linked to the command centre and SAPS for when you are unable to make the call the alarm will make it for you and the response team will be deployed accordingly.

Ladies and gentlemen

Gender based violence affects all of us. We calling on all South African to raise their hands, for men to declare 'NOT IN OUR NAMES' as we are all counted in, in moving a non-violent South Africa forward

I thank you.