Presentation to the Joint Monitoring Committee on Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women on Domestic Violence and Maintenance Presentation by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development

Public education and awareness The Department developed right’s education material on Domestic Violence and Maintenance and distributed it to the regions. Public awareness raising campaigns in the regions targeting the rural and urban communities, involving relevant stakeholders, highlighting Maintenance, Domestic Violence and Customary Marriages. Rights education in schools. Facilitation of Regional Action Plans for Domestic Violence.

Integrated and holistic management of Domestic Violence Established a National Forum for the integrated and holistic management of Domestic Violence Planning provincial workshops for Gauteng, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. We already had a workshop. Provincial stakeholder workshop in the Western Cape facilitated in conjunction with the Regional Head and NGO’s. Planning the development of a protocol / standards for the effective and integrated management of Domestic Violence. Developed a National Plan of Action for management of Maintenance matters.

Capacitation Appointed: – 68 legally qualified Maintenance Officers – 145 Maintenance Investigators – 100 legal Interns for maintenance – 425 Maintenance / Domestic Violence clerks – We are in the process of advertising 153 Maintenance and Domestic Violence clerks positions – We appointed 13 Acting additional magistrates for Maintenance and Domestic Violence – Developing guidelines for Domestic Violence and Maintenance

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Busy developing an integrated family law learnership with SASSETA which will result in a national certificate for our existing family law personnel and the broader public The integrated family law training on substantive law practice for all legally qualified maintenance offices and 325 maintenance clerks The training of all maintenance investigators on basic investigation The provision of an information support system for tracing The facilitation of reviewing of forms to be user-friendly and possible amendments to the family law legislation for Domestic Violence and Maintenance Wellness programme developed by HR to provide debriefing and counseling.

INTERGRATED INFORMATION SYSTEM Busy developing a family law automated case management system which includes Domestic Violence and Maintenance Payment of maintenance monies into the recipient’s bank account through the electronic transfer is taking place in 6 courts in the country. The Director General has instructed that it be rolled out to all the courts where JDAS is not operational until EFT functionality is built into JDAS. The benefits of electronic fund transfer are that maintenance recipient do not have to wait in long queues. An SMS will be sent to the recipient ‘s selected cell phone number advising them that their maintenance monies has been deposited into their bank accounts. No additional bank charges will be incurred when withdrawing all the maintenance monies from the account in one lump sum. The Justice Deposit account is a financial system utilised to administer bail, fines and maintenance monies and is operational in 26 courts in the country The system replaces the manual card system and one is able to get the total amount available and owed to the beneficiary at the click of the button. The aging analysis functionality enables access to case history regarding suspended sentences, variation orders, areas and current order reducing the number of postponement to populate this information manually.

Closure THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION