The government has upped the ante in its fight against gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), declaring it a national disaster.
But analysts and women’s rights groups on Sunday said the move, though welcome, could remain a public relations exercise if no action accompanies it.
“The declaration of GBVF as a national disaster is significant, but for women on the ground the real question is whether this declaration will translate into safety, justice and meaningful change,” said Fatima Shaik, executive director of People Opposing Women Abuse (Powa).
“Much as we are excited about this pronouncement, we are also cautious, because we still need to ensure that the regulations that will be developed and gazetted will go far enough in turning the tide against this scourge of GBVF,” said another activist, Sonke Gender Justice co-executive director Rev Bafana Khumalo.
It follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s declaration on Friday that the scourge had long reached national crisis levels. It also comes after the signing by more than a million people of a Women for Change petition urging the government to declare GBVF a national disaster.
SA is a warzone for women. Three women lose their lives to intimate partner violence every day, according to the SA Medical Research Council. One in three women (33.1%) over the age of 18 has experienced physical violence and nearly 10% have endured sexual violence, reports the Human Sciences Research Council.
The World Bank notes that SA’s intimate partner femicide rate is five times higher than the global average. More than 53,000 sexual offences are reported annually.
GBVF stayed in the spotlight over the weekend, with the G20 leaders’ summit declaration stating, “We condemn all forms of discrimination against women and girls and recall our commitment to end gender-based violence and the killing of women and girls because of their gender.”
This is a massive societal issue … It requires a multi-faceted approach to dealing with a multitude of social problems
— Alex van den Heever, Wits School of Governance
According to Alex van den Heever of the Wits School of Governance, the Disaster Management Act (DMA) is not the solution to gender-based violence, which he describes as a “systemic problem” requiring co-ordinated, multi-layered policy responses.
“This is a massive societal issue … It requires a multi-faceted approach to dealing with a multitude of social problems,” he said, adding that many GBV-related crimes are also linked to other societal issues, such as alcohol abuse.
He pointed to backlogs in rape kit processing, poor-quality police work and corruption within the police, “all of those things which are already subject to legislative frameworks and processes”.
However, declaring GBVF a national disaster activated the legislative mechanisms of the DMA and places the government under formal accountability, said Diana Schwarz, lawyer and anti-GBV activist.
A disaster is defined in the act as a sudden or progressive natural or human-caused occurrence that causes or threatens to cause death; disease; damage to property, infrastructure or the environment; or significant disruption of community life and is of such magnitude that those affected cannot cope using their own resources.
“The legal effect of this is that formal processes under the act are now invoked; this enables government to issue regulations, mobilise resources and co-ordinate [a] response across all spheres of government,” she said, adding “we [now] have the legal backing to hold them accountable”.
In a statement, the department of co-operative governance & traditional affairs concurred that the national executive now carried primary responsibility for co-ordinating and managing this national disaster.
The statement explained that while this classification does not invoke emergency powers, it reinforces and strengthens the systems already in place, including the interministerial committee on GBVF, the intergovernmental committee on disaster management, the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NatJoints) priority committee, the 90-day GBVF acceleration programme, the expansion of Thuthuzela Care Centres, the strengthening of sexual offences courts, and the reform of the criminal justice system.
The DMA requires all organs of state to submit progress reports to the National Disaster Management Centre.
Notably, the national council, tasked with overseeing the implementation of the national strategic plan on GBVF, was not listed by the department of co-operative governance & traditional affairs. Years later, it remains non-operational, with the portfolio committee on social development last week mentioning “repeated concerns about the slow reporting on the implementation” of the plan.
In September, Ramaphosa confirmed that the council will be formally established on April 1 2026, with ring-fenced funding approved by the National Treasury.
“What will make this different is not the announcement but the implementation,” Shaik said. “Women on the ground need to see faster police response times, functional protection orders, fully resourced courts, NGOs and shelters that are funded adequately and consistently, and real consequences for perpetrators.”
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