The Western Cape Government will provide an update on its Violence Prevention Unit on Monday.

Based on the Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention – the unit is using data from healthcare facilities to identify and design unique interventions to better address violence in communities.

It comes as we are days into the annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children campaign.

Social Development MEC Sharna Fernandez – says the campaign serves as a reminder that there’s still a great deal of work needed to ensure that the most vulnerable can live in safety.

“The Western Cape Department of Social Development has a range of prevention programmes in place, including school-based crime prevention programmes, GBV prevention programmes at Youth Cafes and reintegration programmes for ex-offenders. We can all do our part in preventing violence and abuse in the different spaces we occupy daily”.

Meanwhile, between July and September this year – 881 women and 293 children were murdered in South Africa.

The founder of the anti-child abuse group, Matla-A-bana, Monique Strydom says glitches in the judicial system need to be seen in order to effectively deal with these crimes.

“Government has to start taking responsibility; I mean there’s a lot of money that’s been spent on the 16-day campaign. But our police need vehicles, cell phones and prosecutors. It’s the response that’s not even capable or has the capacity to deal with the demand”.