Cape Town - The National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Sexual Offences and Community Affairs (Soca) Unit will today receive a R300 000 donation from local supermarket chain SPAR to assist victims at its Thuthuzela Care Centres (TCC).
The handover will take place at the Atlantis TCC at Wesfleur Hospital which serves Atlantis, Pella, Mamre, Philadelphia and Melkbosstrand. It has provided services to more than 2 000 gender-based violence survivors since its inception.
Soca’s special director for Public Prosecutions, advocate Bonnie Currie-Gamwo, said the donation would help those who came into the centre to report their tragedies and who might be in need.
“One of the ways GBV needs to be addressed from an NPA perspective is that we need to make the system more victim centric. Many of our victims when they arrive in centres to report, are in no state to actually give an account of what happened. They are hungry and absolutely traumatised.
She said Soca had linked up with SPAR which had provided the unit with food it could make on site as part of the service Soca rendered.
“It’s to sustain them on site while they access our services because there is no point doing psycho-social services when the person is hungry – many of the victims come with nothing,” Currie-Gamwo said.
She said the initiative was part of the national strategic plan to end GBV by encouraging public-private participation.
“I think it’s a great example of a public-private partnership, and we are able to address GBV in this manner. It is momentous because we are in continued engagement with SPAR to provide us additional TCCs,” she said.
Currie-Gamwo said as the centres grew in number, so the donation would grow in value. She said the donation would be made monthly as Soca was adding 10 more TCCs.
“From now until 2023, we plan to establish 10 additional sites. We are as a matter of urgency establishing new sites and obtaining the necessary funds for it,” Currie-Gamwo said.
Provincial department of health representatives will also be present for the handover.