Numbers game cannot cure South Africa of its violence gender-based violence

President Cyril Ramaphosa declared gender-based violence and femicide a national disaster on 20 November 2025 after massive civil society mobilisation. On 5 August, the Department of Social Development briefed Parliament on its first quarterly report (April to June) on interventions it is implementing in response to the declaration.

Minister Dina Pule, who was appointed last month, said there were challenges in Limpopo, North West and the Northern Cape with centres and psychosocial support, but plans were in place to strengthen them.

The department was collaborating with the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure to convert buildings into shelters. In Mpumalanga, a Khuseleka One-Stop centre was at an “advanced stage”. These centres provide shelter, trauma counselling, police and legal services to survivors of gender-based violence and abuse under one roof, and operate 24/7.

A Khuseleka centre has been established in Kwa-­Zulu-Natal, Pule said. The Western Cape has opened a new shelter for LGBTQIA+ people. The gender-based violence command centre had managed “31,000 client interactions” in the first quarter of 2026.

Deputy director-general for welfare services Sizakele Magangoe said one Thuthuzela Care Centre – similar to Khuseleka facilities but located in hospitals and clinics – was opened in the Eastern Cape and one in KwaZulu-­Natal, and the department was supporting 68 centres. Where there were no full-time social workers, they were linked to the command centre.

After the presentation, MP Sheila Peters said the gender-based violence command centre was inadequately resourced, with 48 social workers. She questioned whether there were plans to increase capacity.

The presentation focused on prevention and social cohesion, and law enforcement and survivor support, and all the community, schools and South African Police Service (SAPS) training the department and National Prosecuting Authority had led in the past six months. Magangoe said the department was auditing the police’s victim-friendly facilities and acknowledged that some of those services that are rendered were “not of high quality”. She said there was a national focus on cold case management, with 105 ar­­rests out of 203 cases.

No additional budget was received as a result of the national disaster declaration. Instead, all departments were encouraged to reprioritise from the budget they had already received (see graphic below for financial allocations).

The silence of numbers

“I don’t think declaring gender-based violence a na­­tional disaster was strategically the correct thing to do,” Lisa Vetten, gender specialist on violence against women appointed to the Commission for Gender Equality, told Daily Maverick.

“Because we are thinking about it in those terms, it may mean that we end up with the kind of response that we get from the Department of Social Development, which is a whole lot of numbers intended to show urgency. But they don’t tell us really about quality in what was being done, correctly targeted actions, or actions that are most necessary.”

Jeanne Bodenstein, advocacy specialist at Rape Crisis, said: “While we embrace the progress that has been made, it must be acknowledged that … even though the department has a standing budget, no organisations in the Eastern Cape or the Free State are being funded to deliver containment and psychosocial support services in the Thuthuzela Care Centres. This diminishes the quality of support being administered.”

She added: “The intention to roll out new centres is encouraging, but the longstanding issue remains: the current model is expensive, slowing the rate of total centres established annually and not reaching enough survivors in immediate need of comprehensive support.”

An act doesn’t mean action

The National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Act is a historic development. But a scorecard released in May this year by Sonke Gender Justice found the act was not fit for purpose. It stops short of compelling government at all three levels – local, provincial and national – to align plans and budgets with the act, as well as ensuring accountability is upheld.

The council is mandated to coordinate and oversee the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide. Ramaphosa appointed its members on 31 July 2026.

“​Historically, state-led councils run the risk of becoming boardroom-heavy spaces dominated by political appointees who engage in ‘boardroom activism’ detached from the daily realities of townships, informal settlements and rural areas,” said Treatment Action Campaign chair Sibongile Tshabalala.

Regardless of its make-up, the council must be empowered to hold government departments accountable, she said.

A R5-billion emergency fund is tied to the council. This is to scale up shelters, establish 200 additional sexual offences courts by 2028, train SAPS officers, prosecutors and magistrates, and roll out a national behavioural campaign to change attitudes. Finalised, formal allocation is expected to be announced in the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement.

Over the next three years, South Africa should see clear improvements, including better coordination between government departments, faster access to survivor-centred services, increased funding reaching community-based organisations, and greater accountability for implementing the national strategic plan, said Yonela Sinqu, advocacy, media and communications officer at Sisonke National Movement.

“Success cannot only be measured by the number of meetings held or reports produced,” Sinqu said.

It should be measured by whether women, sex workers and gender-diverse people feel safer and are able to access services without discrimination or fear. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.