South Africa's 7.3 Million Women Face Violence: New National Push Targets Crisis

Approximately 7.3 million South African women have experienced physical violence in their lifetimes. That figure, drawn from the Human Sciences Research Council’s First South African National Gender-Based Violence Prevalence Study released in November 2024, sits at the centre of a new national effort to confront what Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga calls “one of the gravest violations of human rights in democratic South Africa.”

The National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide held its inaugural meeting on Monday, marking the formal activation of a mechanism established under the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Act, 2024. For the millions of women, survivors, and families who have lived through this crisis, the Council represents something advocates have pushed toward for years: a permanent, statutory body capable of coordinating the national response beyond electoral cycles and departmental boundaries.

Chikunga, Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, was direct about what the launch means. “This is not simply the establishment of another public institution. It is the institutionalisation of a national commitment to eradicate one of the gravest violations of human rights in democratic South Africa,” she told media when addressing the Council’s operationalisation.

The numbers behind that commitment are stark. More than 2.15 million women have experienced sexual violence. Women with disabilities face a particularly acute risk: the prevalence of sexual violence by a lifetime partner is twice as high among women with disabilities compared with women without disabilities. Recent police data adds further weight. The South African Police Service recorded 50,511 gender-based violence cases during the first quarter of the 2026/27 financial year, with 30,736 resulting in arrests or referrals to the National Prosecuting Authority.

Chikunga refused to let those figures remain abstract. “These are not just statistics. These are South African women, daughters, sisters and girl children. Above all, they are South African citizens whose constitutional rights have been violated,” she said.

The Council’s membership is deliberately broad. It brings together government officials, women’s rights organisations, survivor advocacy groups, community-based organisations, faith-based organisations, disability rights organisations, youth formations, LGBTQIA+ advocacy structures, research and academic institutions, traditional and community leadership formations, business entities, labour organisations, and development partners. Chikunga was clear that these representatives were not assembled merely for sectoral optics. They are there, she said, to serve the Constitution, the Act, women, girl children, survivors, and the South African people.

Responsibility is divided across three pillars. Government representation ensures policy coherence, intergovernmental coordination, and implementation across state machinery. Civil society serves as what Chikunga described as “the conscience of the national response,” keeping the lived experiences of women, girl children, survivors, and communities at the centre of decision-making. The private sector contributes resources, innovation, workplace interventions, economic empowerment initiatives, and strategic partnerships.

The creation of this body follows years of advocacy by women’s movements, civil society organisations, faith communities, labour representatives, traditional leaders, and government officials, all working toward a coordinated national response. It gives practical expression to the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide 2020-2030, which recognised the need for an institutional mechanism capable of sustaining momentum across administrations.

By contrast with previous arrangements, the Council is built to last. Chikunga said it embodies “the collective determination of the nation to ensure that women, children and vulnerable persons can live free from fear, abuse, violence and discrimination.”

As immediate priorities, the Council will work toward concluding a Shareholder Compact, which Chikunga described as an accountability mechanism that will define what success looks like and how it will be measured. A comprehensive costing framework is also planned, designed to identify the resources needed to combat gender-based violence, address existing gaps, and build a national investment case. Good governance, ethical leadership, transparency, and fiduciary responsibility will anchor the Council’s operational approach.

Whether the Council can translate its broad mandate into measurable change for the women and families those 7.3 million cases represent is the question its first year of operation will begin to answer.