GBVF is now a national disaster, but the money never followed

The classification of gender-based violence and femicide as a national disaster has strengthened coordination and expanded services for survivors, but the response is still running on reprioritised budgets rather than dedicated money.

That was the central tension put before the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities on 22 September 2026, when the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities and the Department of Social Development briefed Parliament jointly on the state of disaster and the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on GBVF.

According to the account given to the committee, the sequence began in November 2025, when the President described GBVF as a national crisis. The National Disaster Management Centre classified it as a national disaster on 21 November 2025, and Cabinet endorsed an action plan on 28 November 2025. The plan was taken to civil society organisations in December 2025, including organisations that had marched to demand the classification. A national joint instruction note followed in January 2026, asking directors-general to nominate senior officials to eight work streams covering prevention, enforcement, the legal and regulatory framework, the economy, communication and mobilisation, monitoring and evaluation, funding and costing, and data.

On funding, the briefing was blunt. The classification itself came with no allocation. Departments were asked to reprioritise from existing baselines, and the funding and costing work stream is the area where the most work remains outstanding. The department said it is working with National Treasury on mobilising resources beyond the fiscal space.

The committee also heard that prevention remains among the least funded areas, with the department citing Human Sciences Research Council findings that the response is more reactive than proactive. A shortage of social workers was raised, with Social Development having built a business case and taken it to National Treasury.

Progress was reported in specific terms. Two additional Thuthuzela care centres were established, in Flagstaff in the Eastern Cape and in KwaZulu-Natal, and a shelter for LGBTQIA people became operational in the Western Cape. Shelter services were expanded with priority given to districts that have none. The department reported 12,716 sexual offence cases during the period under review, 6,116 arrests, and 266 life sentences imposed on 196 accused people nationally between January and July. A further 127 offenders were arrested in cold cases and 220 cases were reactivated. On illegal liquor outlets, 28,991 were closed between January and 30 June, a figure the presenting official described as showing how far such outlets have proliferated near schools, universities and churches.

On the courts, 40 district courts were upgraded to minimum standards for domestic violence support services, with 40 customer care counters and 120 bus stools installed and cubicles for online protection order applications added. Six additional sexual offences courts brought the total established in the financial year to 14, with two more expected before the end of March 2026. The Department of Justice had installed 14 additional sets in lower courts by the end of February 2026, bringing the total to 338.

Local government was identified as the weak point. The department reported that service points exist but that the capacity, access and resources of gender focal points vary, and that training municipal focal persons is repeatedly undone when elections change councils and new leadership replaces the people who were trained. Multi-sectoral coordination gaps across national, provincial and local spheres continue to affect coherence and accountability, and the department said the response is unevenly localised in the municipalities where the violence actually happens.

The monitoring picture was presented as improving but incomplete. Six municipalities were monitored in the 2025/26 financial year, and three in the first two quarters of the current year. Seventy-five provincial departments were monitored across all nine provinces, against an initial target of nine, because technical monitors and data collectors placed in premiers’ offices made wider coverage possible. Those monitors are funded by the European Union, and the committee was told that funding will soon end, leaving the department looking for ways for provinces to absorb the posts.

National department reporting has risen from a baseline of about 10 departments quarterly to an average of 32, which the department called a significant improvement. It also said departments have not shifted from reporting activities to measurable outcomes, and that financial accountability, meaning whether plans are matched by budgets, is the next focus, along with targeting hotspots.

The briefing was delivered against a painful backdrop. The deputy minister opened by conveying condolences to bereaved families and solidarity with survivors, and referred to reports of a senior member of the South African Police Service accused of sexual grooming involving a 16-year-old, with a rape case involving an 18-year-old expected to appear in court that day. The deputy minister said the judicial process must determine the facts while complainants receive protection and support, and that rank, wealth or proximity to power must never obstruct an investigation or shield anyone from lawful accountability. The department said it had written to the Minister of Home Affairs to establish whether Lawrence Zingamayama had complied with the conditions attached to his immigration status, and to consider action under the Immigration Act of 2002 should non-compliance be established, with due process observed.

The Minister of Social Development, present for the briefing, deferred her remarks until after the presentations. The Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities and her deputy left for a meeting with the President, and the committee was told the interministerial committee on GBVF is co-chaired by ministers Chikonga and Boule.

The National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide also briefed the committee on its composition, mandate, work since the board was constituted, funding and expenditure, and its proposed programme for the remainder of the fiscal year. Outstanding matters include the council’s full operational arrangements, its Schedule 3A listing, executive leadership and departmental transition support, which the department said require urgent attention.

Source: Parliament of South Africa (YouTube), Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, 22 September 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWDV7zvqZtQ