More work needed to inform women of protection laws, dialogue hears
Recent amendments to various pieces of legislation was one of the main topics at a dialogue on women's rights hosted by Deputy Minister of Justice John Jeffery.
On Saturday, he was joined by a panel of judiciary, academia and legal practitioners in Durban.
Pat Moodley, who's the provincial head of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, says three gender-based violence amendment acts were unpacked.
"Women who are victims of domestic violence have no clue that they can go to court and they can get protection, that there are pieces of legislation that can provide remedies for them. There is a lot of work that needs to get done."
She says there also need to changes in the divorce act.
"While we still waiting for confirmation of the constitutional court on that, we need to talk about wat the impact of that declaration of invalidity is for women in generally and most importantly the constitutional court in June this year confirmed the Supreme Court of Appeal ruling and it also declared certain traditions of the Marriage Act and Divorce Act unconstitutional."
