Gaps in the safety net — breaking down state and societal protections for children

3 Jun 2025

South Africa’s child protection system is supposed to be a safety net for young people in danger. But when you listen to the people working in the sector, you hear the same story again and again – the net is full of holes and too many children are falling through.

Child protection in South Africa is a whole-of-society responsibility, involving the family and community, the departments of social development and justice, the South African Police Service and a range of civil society organisations.

These structures are meant to provide a safety net for the country’s children and ensure accountability and support when young people are exposed to physical, sexual or emotional attacks.

And yet, too many children are still falling through the gaps. The experiences of some victims are never disclosed. Other cases are reported only to be lost over years-long efforts to attain justice and assistance.

Daily Maverick spoke to child advocacy experts about South Africa’s safety net for children, from its successes and failures to the need for reinforcement.

Catch up: Childhood in crisis

This is a special Daily Maverick editorial project exposing the brutal realities of child abuse, neglect, and systemic failure – and what needs to change.

Over the coming days, we’ll publish a series of in-depth articles.
Keep checking this page for the latest stories in the series.

How does SA compare with other countries in child protection efforts?

Globally, one in every two children between the ages of two to 17 experience some form of violence every year, according to Sinah Moruane, child protection specialist at Unicef South Africa. One in three children experience a form of emotional abuse.

“As South Africa… our child homicide rate is very high. We are standing at 5.5 [homicides per 100,000 children], according to the research done by the University of Cape Town Children’s Institute, as compared to the global homicide levels, which are 2.5 for every 100,000 children,” said Moruane.

The country does have legal frameworks and policies related to protecting children, namely the Children’s Act, the Criminal Procedure Act and the Sexual Offences and Related Matters Act.

Moruane noted that South Africa was also part of a global movement to address violence against children.

But despite a robust legal framework, implementation remains flawed.

Read more: Attacks on children — the scourge of violent crime affecting SA’s most vulnerable

How do social workers ensure the protection of children?

South Africa’s child protection system relies heavily on social workers, according to Professor Shanaaz Matthews, former director of the UCT Children’s Institute.

While social workers act through the Department of Social Development and at the level of community-based organisations, there simply aren’t enough to manage the scale of violence against children in South Africa, said Moruane.

Berenice Barry, social work manager at the Cape Town Child Welfare Society, said that social workers received training internally and from external service providers.

Resources remained a challenge in every NGO, but she said social workers were solution-focused and performed their duties with the resources available to them.

Moruane noted that for Child Protection Month 2025, the Department of Social Development committed to examining its case management process so that children whose abuses were reported received the best support.

“We know for a fact that there is the register that the department has institutionalised. The Child Protection Register assists in recording survivors, but also records people who perpetrate [against] children,” she said, adding that the register ensured provinces could track and support survivors.

However, Moruane said that more needed to be done to ensure that children received the necessary support to heal from the scars of being “violated”.

Daily Maverick approached the Department of Social Development, but had not received a response at the time of publishing.

How does the SAPS make or break cases?

Many challenges around the SAPS’ approach to crimes against children have been highlighted by child advocacy organisations and media over the years, including the resource constraints at police stations, the specialised training of officers and the backlogs of DNA evidence for matters under investigation.

In March, parliamentary committee on police chairperson Ian Cameron stated that the DNA backlog facing the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory division exceeded 140,000 cases.

Luke Lamprecht, head of advocacy for the Gauteng-based nonprofit Women and Men Against Child Abuse, told Daily Maverick that issues bedevilling DNA forensic services in South Africa included the limited availability of sexual assault evidence collection kits, breaks in the chain of custody for samples and years-long waits for results.

“Without a suspect to test [samples] against, they simply don’t test the DNA, so [samples] lie around, rooms and rooms full of these kits, that are never analysed,” he said.

Daily Maverick has asked the SAPS about DNA testing services and investigations of crimes against children. A response will be added once it becomes available.

Moraune expressed appreciation for the efforts of the SAPS, but believed improvement was needed in officers’ engagements with child victims, especially when it came to taking statements.

“Some… chase the children away, [or tell them to] come with an adult, so that then they can take their case. What if the very same adult is… [the] perpetrator of violence? Then it becomes very difficult for a child to feel free to report.”

Online abuses against children, such as exposure to child sexual abuse material or grooming by perpetrators, are sometimes a low priority for the SAPS, said Moraune.

“When a child has to report this, there is no urgency… because it’s not viewed with the same intensity and seriousness,” she said.

“We are appealing to the police… to take the cases that children put across, and show that proper investigation is needed.”

Rumbidzai Chidoori, regional policy and advocacy coordinator at Sonke Gender Justice, said inadequate state budget allocations for police resources and shelters, particularly those that could accommodate women with children, showed a lack of appreciation for the scale of the problem.

When children were removed from abusive homes, Chidoori said not enough was done to follow up, leading to secondary violations.

What do children experience in SA’s courts?

When Daily Maverick asked the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) about its success rates in cases of crimes against children, it responded that it did not “keep records of the victims at this stage – not even on the Child Justice [side], unfortunately”.

Lamprecht estimated that in cases of sexual violence against children, the conviction rate was between 4% and 7%.

The Teddy Bear Foundation, an NGO providing services for victims of child abuse, released statistics in March 2025 showing that, of 5,385 cases handled by its court preparation programme between 2019 and 2024, just 4% had resulted in a conviction, according to a TimesLIVE report.

When children’s cases make it to court, they should receive support services throughout – and beyond the justice processes, said Moruane. She noted that, according to the Criminal Procedure Act, child victims should not be brought into contact with perpetrators.

“We can attest to the fact that the country has put in measures that are really responsive to the needs of children, to ensure that survivors of violence are not engaging in forms of secondary victimisation by going through the court processes,” she said.

Lamprecht noted that while processes in the high court tended to be well-resourced and efficient, the situation in the lower courts was often more disorganised, with many postponements. One case he’s involved with has been in process for seven years.

How effective are referral pathways between stakeholders?

While institutions involved in child protection were aware of their mandates, there were times that children “fell through the cracks” due to failures in the referral pathways between stakeholders, said Moruane.

“The referral mechanisms are the ones that are failing the child… We need to look at how best to connect the dots between the different child protection actors in the ecosystem to ensure that at least the child will move from a social worker to the police, or [vice versa],” she said.

Shifting to digitised referral pathways would go a long way to streamlining the process of moving cases of child violence through the system, said Moruane. It would allow case information to be shared seamlessly between different professionals, reducing the need for children to repeatedly recount traumatic events.

There have been reports of poor coordination between various departments, leading to lost evidence in child abuse cases. However, Barry said social workers didn’t experience any challenges in working with law enforcement, the courts or hospitals in child abuse cases.

How is family the first line of defence?

Family remains a child’s first line of defence against harm. Moruane said there were still many cases of violence against children that went unreported by caregivers.

“Research tells us that three in every four children experience violence at the hands of caregivers or parents. It shows us that we have normalised… the administering of corporal punishment to children and as such, addressing violence becomes very challenging,” she said.

“It is important that parents, caregivers, other family members have a listening ear for children and… report such cases, so that children can receive help… at a very convenient and early age.”

safety children

How do we shift to a system of prevention?

Prevention measures are vital when it comes to violence against children, according to Chidoori. South Africa’s system, however, is largely focused on responding to harm.

Chidoori advocated for directing more resources towards preventive measures, including stronger social protection systems, positive parenting (especially involving fathers), addressing harmful social norms, tackling substance abuse and providing mental health support.

“If we strengthen prevention, fewer children will go through the criminal justice system, and fewer children will actually require therapeutic, intensive interventions. We should turn the pyramid around and strengthen prevention,” said Moruane.

Identifying cases of child abuse is the responsibility of everyone in society, said Matthews.

“Until we all accept that we have a part to play in how to prevent and reduce abuse of children, then we’re not going to stop this problem because stopping this problem starts with each one of us internally,” she said.

“This speaks to how we raise our own children, how we use corporal punishment … and [how] people at times turn a blind eye when they see it happening to neighbours or within our families.” DM

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