Violence against women and children costs South Africa between R28.4 and R42.4 billion annually

Members of Parliament heard on Tuesday that funding towards tackling gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) remains a concern despite its declaration as a national disaster by President Cyril Ramaphosa in December last year.

Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Velenkosini Hlabisa, and the Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Sindisiwe Chikunga, as well as officials from their departments, briefed a joint meeting of the portfolio committees on the declaration of gender-based violence (GBV) as a national disaster.

The committee heard that GBVF costs South Africa between R28.4 billion and R42.4 billion annually, or 0.9% to 1.3% of the country’s GDP, which is equivalent to funding 200,000 primary school teachers or providing National Health Insurance for 25% of the population.

Statistics showed that the femicide rate stands at 9 per 100,000 women — five times higher than the global average — placing the country among the worst globally.

In 2019/20, 2,695 women were murdered, roughly one every three hours. Between July and September 2024, 957 women were killed, and 1,567 survived attempted murder.

A total of 53,498 sexual offences were reported between April 2022 and March 2023. Rape accounted for 42,780 cases — an average of 117 rapes per day.

Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, and Persons, Liezl van der Merwe, said that what concerned her most was how GBVF disproportionately affects women, youth and persons with disabilities, and the issue of funding.

“In fact, the presentation this morning highlighted that at least 30% of women with disabilities have experienced sexual or physical violence, while older women are more vulnerable.

“The GBVF declaration without the funding being in place for me is of grave concern, because the question must be asked: how do we bolster civil society without extra funding? We know that our NGOs and our NPOs are underfunded, and they need more resources,” Van der Merwe said.

“We know that 6,000 to 8,000 social workers who have been trained by the State are sitting at home, and they, too, cannot be absorbed, because we do not have funding. So, this declaration of a national disaster, while it is welcomed, the concern really is that if we want to move the needle, if we really want to make an impact in terms of this fight, to truly be able to address this national crisis, we do need the additional resources,” she said.

Chikunga said that in the country, there are 66 Thuthuzela Care Centres (TCCs), and that by the end of the financial year, they are hoping that it will be 68. 

TCCs are facilities that have been introduced as a critical part of the country’s anti-rape strategy, aiming to reduce secondary victimisation and to build a case ready for successful prosecution. 

“As the presentation indicated, we’re working with other private sector companies, including the mining council. They are prepared first to upgrade the already existing TCCs, but to even build new ones. They would wish us to assist and work with them where there are probably issues or problems that require our intervention.”

Chikunga added that there definitely is not enough, but they are currently looking at hotspot areas in the country.

“The challenge about that is that the more we build, (the more) it means we have GBVF. We wish that South Africans could change their behaviour and don’t abuse women, whether physically, sexually, or economically, emotionally, etc.”

Chikunga noted that the classification as a national disaster allows departments to reprioritise and find some resources from their allocated budget, which they can then deploy and allocate to deal with the matter.

“For a department such as ours, which hardly has a budget for its own work. How do you reprioritise when you have no budget at all? I think that’s an important question that is actually being asked.

“We have written to the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, and we are hoping to meet with him so that we can address the issue of the classification itself, and the resources for the department that is expected to provide leadership to hold everybody accountable, to ensure the coordination as a department, and actually identify and channel other departments to where the resources should actually be directed.”

Hlabisa said that within the second week of March, they are going to reconvene the Intergovernmental Committee on Disaster Management (ICDM), where the committee will have to give reports on how they have readjusted their budgets, while also looking at what the Minister of Finance would have made available to intervene on GBVF.

“And after that meeting, we will be preparing a joint report to Cabinet, because it was a cabinet-driven matter. It is gonna be our first meeting in the month of February, and the second meeting of the Cabinet will be in March, where we want to concentrate on the resources, following the classification,” Hlabisa said.

“I would therefore request, if we can have a follow-up meeting, and if we can also work, we can request these critical departments to be part of that meeting. In terms of disaster, there is a better coordination, and there is a better allocation of money, and I would request that in our next meeting, we table details, per municipality/per province.”

theolin.tembo@inl.co.za