Ms Fiona Nicholson, co-founder of the Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme (TVEP) and mentor at the Songozwi Victim Empowerment Programme (SVEP), says the police do not seem to understand the role they are supposed to play in NPOs regarding victims of gender-based violence.
"The police should only be allowed to bring victims to the VEPs, not try to run these NPOs because, in the instance where the police are implicated in a GBV case - say they did not assist a victim when she tried to lay a complaint - how can the NPO hold the police accountable for that if they (the police) are also [active] on the NPO's board?" she argues.
Advocate Bernadine Bachar, director of the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children and executive member of the National Shelter Movement of South Africa (NSMSA), agrees that the role of the police is to support and assist GBV survivors, and not to interfere with the running of the VEPs.
According to Nicholson, many non-profit VEPs in Vhembe are afraid to speak out about the police's involvement in the running of VEPs because they fear backlash from the police. They blame the SAPS in part for the collapse of the SVEP after the Makhado SAPS station commander suspended the SVEP's services, which was run from the police's house in Breda Street in Louis Trichardt, in 2019.
But Sgt Tshifhiwa Irene Radzilani of the Makhado Police Station says the reason why the SVEP stopped operating was because of maladministration within the NPO.
That a dire need exists for more non-profit victim-empowerment programmes that provide shelter to victims is indisputable. In Vhembe, the biggest problem seems to lie with late payments from the Department of Social Development. From 19-20 October, a GBV Shelter Indaba was held in Johannesburg. The Indaba was attended by the Department of Social Development, NSMSA, former Public Prosecutor Prof Thuli Madonsela and other stakeholders, who resolved to see to it that an adequate, standardised three-year national funding model is established.
The police in Louis Trichardt say that, if a need for a shelter for victims of gender-based violence in or around Louis Trichardt exists, such victims may be sent to any of the non-profit VEP organisations, such as the Thohoyandou VEP or the Tshilwavhusiku VEP.