Alarming findings of GBV study — will government finally address the crisis of violence?

Civil society organisations have little to no hope that the government will implement recommendations in the first South African National Gender-Based Violence Study and warn that it could become one of many that are collecting dust if it does not push for immediate action.  

The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) handed the study to Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and People with Disabilities, Sindisiwe Chikunga, and her deputy Mmapaseka Letsike, in Pretoria on Monday, 18 November 2024.   

 The study highlights alarming levels of various forms of violence among both youth and adults. For instance, it found that:

• 36% of women in South Africa (an estimated 7.8 million) had experienced physical and sexual violence at some point in their lives, with black women being the most affected, said HSRC deputy executive director Nompumelelo Zungu.


• A total of 24% of the women — an estimated 3.4 million — experienced the violence at the hands of their intimate partners.


• Disturbingly, 6.1% reported experiencing physical violence in the past 12 months, which translates to an estimated 1,338,336 women who were physically assaulted in the country.

Read more: Gender-based violence is a war against the humanity, dignity and equality of women 

The study found that lifetime physical violence was also significantly higher among women who were cohabiting but not married than with women who  were currently married and those who were not currently in a relationship.      

In another disturbing trend, the study found that 85% of men surveyed were aware of laws in South Africa addressing violence against women, but somehow agreed with the perception that the laws made it too easy for women to bring a violence charge against a man.  

“We found that 9.9% of men held the view that when a woman is raped, she is usually to blame for putting herself in that situation. A further 11.9% agreed that if a woman does not physically fight back, it is not rape,” Zungu said. 

The council has asked the government to find a long-term holistic approach to curbing GBV and to also implement interventions that address psychological and social behavioral factors. 

Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga (left), with Dr Nompumelelo Zungu of the Human Sciences Research Council  during the handover of the study. (Photo: Ntswe Mokoena/GCIS)

Chikunga said that the findings of the study should not only be a source of shame, but also a rallying cry for immediate action. 

“You have confirmed our long standing observation that most violence against women is not committed by strangers, but by the current or former husbands and intimate partners. This reality is particularly disheartening and challenging to prevent as it occurs in spaces where individuals naturally let their guard down. The findings of this study should not only serve as a source of shame, but also a call of immediate action.”

She said: “The findings and recommendations of the study will contribute to our ongoing focus on prevention, enhanced protection for victims and ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable."

Furthermore, the department would incorporate the findings of the study into the national strategic plan on GBV and femicide, including adjusting existing policies and programmes to align with the evidence presented. 

In 2022, Daily Maverick identified 10 key promises made by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration on GBV since 2018. These were drawn from resolutions taken at the first Presidential Summit, from the National Strategic Plan (NSP) on GBV & Femicide, and from other pledges made by, for instance, then police minister Bheki Cele.

Of these 10 promises, we found that two have been clearly fulfilled to date, read all about it here: Presidential Summit on Gender-Based Violence makes promises, promises, and more promises… 

Advocate Brenda Madumise, the director of Wise Collective and former co-chairperson of the Interim Steering Committee on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide said South Africa had undertaken major research and reports, but implementation to date had been dismal. 

 “So we go into this report with not the best of hopes, right, precisely because it has taken us a very long time even to get this government to act on many things,” she said.  

She critisized the failure to resource the national strategic plan on gender-based violence since 2021, which had made little progress. 

Madumise, however, believes that the study gives credible data. 

“Because it’s a national study, it gives us accurate information that we can use at any given time. We are no longer, you know, thumb sucking the numbers any more,” she said.  

Dr Shaheda Omar, the Teddy Bear Clinic director, said the government’s commitment to implement the recommendations into the national strategic plan was nothing new.  

“They keep talking about the same thing over and again,” she said.

Omar believes that in order to eradicate GBV the spotlight needs to be put on the victims, survivors and perpetrators, which would help deal with the scourge from a grassroots level.  

 “What is clear is that while we often talk about consulting experts, the true experts are the victims and survivors themselves. We know that intimate partner violence affects women the most — though men are also victims, the scale of violence against women is far greater. To find effective solutions, a whole-of-society approach is essential,” she said.  

Themba Masango, the spokesperson for activist movement Not In My Name, echoed similar sentiments. 

“We have seen this before. South Africa has a good understanding of the problem, the recommendations, and the solutions needed to address it. However, the challenge lies in implementation, and this is where the country has fallen short.”  

Masango is of the view that to meaningfully address the scourge, civil society organisations need to stop working in silos, and start singing from the same hymn book.  

Madumise echoed similar sentiments. 

“It is going to require civil society again to push for this study not to be a study that just gathers dust; it’s civil society that must push and insist that certain things must be done, and must be done with urgency. So if there’s commitment to this study, how come you’re not committed to resources in the National Strategic Plan?” 

Suggested interventions and strategies to eradicate GBV include: 

• Focusing on the different leadership layers in communities, particularly traditional communities, and linking GBV messaging to rebuilding the social fabric, strengthening community and families, and raising young people who can actively reshape communities, families and society at large;


• Developing appropriate social policies to address the social and structural drivers that were identified in the study;


• Designing and evaluating interventions from an intersectionality informed approach and culturally appropriate perspective, addressing the historical violence and disempowerment of women and black communities in general; and


• Commissioning organisations such as the Healing of the Memories Institute, the Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture, and intergenerational trauma experts to develop evidence-based, community-based interventions that draw from the idea of Ubuntu.

Although women have mostly been on the receiving end of violence, Professor Olive Shisana in the Presidency said that women could also be violent, stressing the need to change the national strategy in dealing with the scourge of GBV.  

“Let us remember that it’s very important if we are going to deal with gender-based violence. As the minister said, we have to deal with violence wherever it comes from. We have to change our national strategy, strategy on gender-based violence, because we are always concentrating on men.” 

While the findings of the study reflect a higher prevalence of violence compared with police statistics, Shisana said it was not surprising because often a lot of cases went unreported to the police. 

“So it’s very important that this study be used now to recalibrate the information that we have so we plan better. And to me, that is absolutely critical,” she said.  DM