Speeches

Address by the Hon Andries Nel, MP, Deputy Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development at the launch of the Thuthuzela Care Centre in Phuthaditjhaba, Free State on 16 April 2025

Program Director,
The Hon. Premier of Free State, Ms. Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae The Hon. MEC Health, Mr. Monyatso Mahlatsi,
The Hon. MEC Social Department, Ms Nokwanje Mathabo Leeto, The First Rand Head of Social Investment: Ms Kone Gugushe, The SPAR Franchise Owner: Mr Frankie Rencken,
The National Director of Public Prosecutions, Adv Shamila Batohi,
The Director-General of National Department of Health: Dr Sandile Buthelezi, The Provincial Commissioner of SAPS, FS: Lt. Gen Motswenyane
The Provincial Head of Free State, Mr Chris Mfunzana, Senior Government Officials,
Distinguished members of civil society organisations, Esteemed Guests and Community members, Comrades and friends,

I convey the warm greetings of Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi who is attending a Presidential Imbizo in the Eastern Cape. It is with great regret that she cannot attend. The fight against gender-based violence and femicide is a political priority that is close to her heart.

It is a struggle that is close to all our hearts, especially those of us gathered here today.

I request you kindly to rise and join me in reciting the Preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa:
We, the people of South Africa, Recognise the injustices of our past;
Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land; Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and
Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.
We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to -

• Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;
• Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;
• Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and
• Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.

May God protect our people.
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika. Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso. God seën Suid-Afrika. God bless South Africa.
Mudzimu fhatutshedza Afurika. Hosi katekisa Afrika.

The preamble to our Constitution captures the essence of who we are as a nation, and the kind of society that we seek to be and, indeed must become.

When we proclaim, as we have just done, that we seek to build a democratic and open society in which every citizen is equally protected by law, every citizen must include the victims of gender-based violence.

When we proclaim, as we have done, that we are committed to improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person this must include, especially, the most vulnerable in our society: women, children, gender non-conforming persons, persons with disabilities, the LGBTQIA+ persons.

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and the National Prosecuting Authority are committed to fight any kind of gendered power-based violence perpetrated against vulnerable persons.

Our commitment must be equal to, if not greater than, the magnitude of the pandemic of hate and violence that the most vulnerable in our society are confronted with.
At 31 December 2024, the statistics drawn from our courts already showed127 cases of statutory rape. A recent report by Statistics SA, revealed that over 105,000 girls between 10 and 19 gave birth during the period April 2022 to March 2023.

In less than a fortnight, we will celebrate Freedom Day on 27 April – 31 years since our first democratic, non-racial elections.

We will celebrate Freedom Day under the theme: United in Resilience for the Defence of Our Freedom and Democracy.

It is, regrettably, an appropriate theme given the very adverse international conjuncture that we find ourselves in.

We see dark clouds of conflict, tension, intolerance, authoritarianism gathering all over the world.

Increasingly lightning flashes of aggression are being directed at South Africa, a country committed to nothing more than occupying our “rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations”.

In the worlds of the Freedom Charter:

There shall be peace and friendship. South Africa shall be a fully independent state which respects the rights and sovereignty of all nations; South Africa shall strive to maintain world peace and the settlement of all international disputes by negotiation – not war.

Our freedom and democracy were not attained without struggle and sacrifice, neither will their continued existence be guaranteed without our collective commitment and effort, united in our diversity.

We say: “Asinamona, asinanzondo, siyayidumisa iMzans ‘Afrika!”

But we also say, as our President said during the State of the Nation Address: “We will not be bullied!”

Therefore, we must remain: United in Resilience for the Defence of Our Freedom and Democracy.

During the past week, the re-opening of the inquests into the deaths of Chief Albert Luthuli and Griffiths Mxenge reminded us painfully that our freedom was, indeed, not for free.

We also welcome, with a mixture of pain and euphoria, the historic judgment by Judge Dario Dosio in the Gauteng High Court on Monday, that former askari Tlhomedi Ephraim Mfalapitsa (67) and former apartheid Security Branch member Christiaan Siebert Rorich (74), can be charged with the 1982 murder of the Cosas-4: Eustice "Bimbo" Madikela, Ntshingo Peter Matabane, Fanyana Nhlapo and Zandile Musi.

The Congress of South African Students (Cosas) was formed in 1981. It was one of the largest and most militant affiliates of the United Democratic Front (UDF). It was also one of the first to adopt the Freedom Charter.

Judge Dosio held that: "There can be no time bar [for] crimes against humanity [and] apartheid constituted a crime against humanity."

The struggle against Apartheid was also a struggle against patriarchy and gender oppression, and the triple oppression and exploitation of the majority of South African women on the basis of race, class and gender.

As we celebrate the defeat of this odious system, we pay tribute to the many heroines of our struggle who sacrificed so much: Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, Sophie Williams de Bruyn, and many others who marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 9 August 1956 to protest the introduction of pass laws for women.

Gathered here today, in the Free State, we continue to be inspired by the life and struggle of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke, an activist and intellectual, who was present at the founding of the South African Native National Congress in 1912. She also led the first women’s anti-pass demonstration on 28 May 1913, in Bloemfontein.

In this month, as we celebrate our freedom from the oppression of the past, we need collectively to safeguard our democratic gains, while we robustly fight against the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide.

We gather here today to honour them and to recommit ourselves to continuing their struggle by launching this Thuthuzela Care Centre (TCC) in Phuthadithjaba, the sixty- sixth of its kind in South Africa, and the fifth in the Free State.

The Thuthuzela Care Centre model is designed to provide psycho-social, medical and legal services to victims of GBV.

It does so, amongst others, by ensure a centralized and cohesive management of these cases.

It does so by promoting the sharing of resources in government to achieve a coordinated, caring, responsive, agile and effective justice system.

We commend the invaluable support of the provincial departments of Health and Social Development, SAPS and others to ensuring that Thuthuzela Care Centres achieve their objectives. We pay special tribute to health care workers for their efforts in the day-to-day management of these Centres.

The Thuthuzela Care Centre model represents home-grown international best practice.

It has made significant inroads in making victims not only to see but feel that justice has been done.

The Thuthuzela Care Centre model represents not only a whole of government approach to combatting GBV, but a whole of society effort.

We therefore welcome the continued participation by business, and we extend our sincere appreciation to the First Rand Empowerment Foundation and the Spar Franchise for their invaluable support for this noble cause.

We also commend the role played by civil society organisations and community members. We encourage them to report crimes of GBV to this Thuthuzela Care Centre so that victims and survivors of these horrendous crimes receive the necessary medical, psycho-social and legal services. We simply cannot succeed without your support.

Section 54 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act of 2007 criminalises any failure to report any knowledge, reasonable belief or suspicion that a sexual offence has been committed against a vulnerable person, as defined by the Act.

Likewise, section 2B of the Domestic Violence Act of 1998 imposes a mandatory reporting of domestic violence matters perpetrated against children, persons with disabilities and older persons. Non-compliance with the latter provision also amounts to a punishable offence.

The establishment of this Thuthuzela Care Centre in Phuthadithjaba bears testimony to the fact that government is committed to honouring its commitments, both in the GBVF National Strategic Plan, as well as the commitments by President Cyril Ramaphosa in the 2025 State of the Nation Address.

The President has given clear marching orders us that he wishes to see every victim of GBVF accessing justice services that are free from secondary traumatization and victimisation.

The National Prosecuting Authority reports that, during the period 1 January 2025 to 9 April 2025, the Free State finalized 574 cases of sexual offences with a verdict - and recorded the highest conviction rate of 86.9 percent.

This was followed by the Eastern Cape with a conviction rate of 78.7 percent arising from verdicts in 1 061 cases.

We commend the National Director of Public Prosecutions, and prosecutors in the Free State, working with their colleagues in the Justice Crime Prevention and Security Cluster as well as business and civil society organisations, to bring justice to vulnerable victims of sexual offences.

However, sadly, the recent cases of Cwecwe and Omotoso have dented public trust in our criminal justice system, and in the National Prosecuting Authority.

The Minister has had frank and constructive engagements with the National Director of Public Prosecutions to take corrective action.

We will not rest until the public confidence that has been lost is restored - not through words, but through visible action and tangible results.

However, the battle against GBVF cannot not be won by our law enforcement agencies alone. And it certainly cannot be won without the support and involvement of men.

President Ramaphosa said at the recent Biennial Conference of the International Association of Women Judges that:
“The task of ending GBVF should not be the responsibility of women alone, it should also involve men who should in fact be in the forefront of the struggle because it is us as men who violate women. So, in many ways we must lead the struggle against gender- based violence.”

As men, we need to unlearn the patriarchal ideologies and practices that we were raised with. We must be resolute in re-building the values of equality, respect, and dignity for women and girls, starting within our own families. We must promote positive masculinity in all sectors of life.

The implementation of family rehabilitation programmes must be intensified to improve parenting skills and the visibility of fathers to their children.

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development’s report of the first three quarters of the previous financial year reveals, shockingly and painfully, that 1 498 of the 3 212 new sexual offences cases registered by our courts were allegedly perpetrated by children.

This has created a pandemic within a pandemic. We must act together, and we must act robustly.

Let us remain United in Resilience for the Defence of Our Freedom and Democracy.

In the words of the Freedom Charter, adopted 70 years ago, on 26 June 1955, we say:
“Let all people who love their people and their country now say, as we say here:
These freedoms we will fight for, side by side, throughout our lives, until we have won our liberty.”
In this spirit, this Thuthuzela Care Centre in Phuthaditjhaba is declared open.

I thank you.