REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA COMBINED SECOND PERIODIC REPORT UNDER THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLE`S RIGHTS and INITIAL REPORT UNDER THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA rolled out in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, and rollouts to other provinces are under way. 429. In 2012/13 we had 10 Khuseleka One Stop Centres which provides counselling services for victims of GBV and 97 VEP shelters (managed by NGO’s funded by DSD) providing safe shelter to adult victims of GBV, mostly women and their children. The aged 227 228 430. South Africa is well aware of the vulnerability that comes with old age. The size and shape of the African population over the next 100 years will change dramatically. The population of the continent is set to quadruple to over 4 billion people. In South Africa, the percentage of the population over 60 is already 8% and is predicted to grow to 14% by 2030. 431. The Older Persons Act, 2006227 stands as one of the key interventions to stop abuse of older persons in the country. The national inter-sectoral implementation of this Act is led by the Department of Social Development. It is an Act intended to protect, promote and maintain the status, rights, well-being and security of older persons. Section 30 of the Act criminalizes any act of abuse against an older person, and further defines ‘abuse’ as including physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse and economic abuse. The Act provides for the prescription of norms and standards that define the acceptable levels of services that may be provided to older persons and in terms of which services must be monitored and evaluated. It provides for the registration, regulation and monitoring of community-based programmes and residential facilities for older persons. 432. Section 31 requires the Minister of Social Development to keep a register of persons convicted of the abuse of an older person. This is mainly to prevent all registered convicted persons from working in environments that will expose them to older persons. The aim is to reduce the re-offending rate in these cases, while protecting older persons from potential abuse. 433. In relation to the protection of older persons, the Act requires any person who suspects that an older person has been abused or suffers from an abuse-related injury to immediately notify the Director-General or a police official of his or her suspicion. Abuse of an older person is broadly defined to include physical, sexual, psychological, and economic abuse. Where a person has been convicted of any crime and it is found that that person abused an older person in the commission of such crime, then that fact will be regarded as an aggravating circumstance for sentencing purposes. 434. South Africa has also taken positive measures to ensure that older persons are offered social assistance. Under the Social Assistance Act, 2004228 older persons are entitled to an older person’s grant from the age of 60 for both men and women. Social assistance in South Africa is fundamentally designed to assist children, disabled individuals and older persons and it can therefore be expected that significant proportions of grant Act No. 13 of 2006 Act No. 13 of 2004 118