Sonke Gender Justice endorses the anti-corruption march scheduled for the 30th in Cape Town, Pretoria and other cities across the country

Sonke Gender Justice will join hundreds of organisations and thousands of people on Wednesday when civil society and partners will march in cities across the country to demand an end to corruption. The activities are coordinated by the Unite Against Corruption campaign, and will culminate in massive direct actions to Parliament and the Union buildings this week. “For us, this march is not an ideologically or politically partisan event. We join the march with millions of South Africans who are simply tired of sitting by and watching the country’s resources being plundered. Indeed, this is the start of a concerted campaign of broader South African civil society to rid our country of the scourge of corruption,” says Dean Peacock, Executive Director of Sonke Gender Justice.

We want to send a strong message that corruption cannot and will never be accepted as a norm!

Sonke has called for increased funding for, and better coordination, of the response to the Gender Based Violence (GBV) scourge currently ravaging our country. The lack of adequate resources has often been mentioned as the reason for the underfunding of institutions, including civil society organisations working to end violence against women and children, in particular, as well as Gender Based Violence. Insufficient funding has enormous implications on our ability to make adequate strides in combating social ills, including addressing gender-based violence much more effectively. Yet, the Unite Against Corruption campaign estimates that corruption has cost South Africa R700 billion in the last two decades.

“We believe that South Africa has enough resources to fully fund a comprehensive National Strategic Plan on GBV. It is self evident that ending corruption will free more resources in government to support interventions aimed at ending violence against women and children,” says Angelica Pino, Programme Director at Sonke. More directly, ending corruption in the provision of healthcare, security and justice, education, social welfare and nutrition, will enable these sectors to improve their service to those who need it the most. In fact, the Auditor-General reported R2.6 billion unauthorised expenditure and another R62.7 billion in irregular expenditure in 2013-2014. Where have these funds gone?

For further information and interviews contact:

Desmond Lesejane, Executive Director, Sonke Gender Justice
011 33 93589 / desmond@genderjustice.org.za

Marlise Richter, Development and Advocacy Specialist, Sonke Gender Justice
021 423 7088 / marlise@genderjustice.org.za