According to Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, the country continues to see unacceptable acts of violence committed against girls and women on a daily basis. The department relayed that GBVF cases are extremely high; despite this many incidents are not reported and are thus unaccounted within the national statistics.
The 2020/21 sexual offences statistics are yet to be released by the SAPS, however, in 2019/20 the police recorded an astonishing 53 776 sexual offences of which 42 664 were rape cases.
Although final figures for the 2020/21 financial year have not been released, some of the existing data indicates that the lockdown impacted on a woman’s ability to report incidents or seek help through regular channels. This is proved by the Department of Social Development GBV Command Centre which reported a drastic increase in phone calls, text messages and USSDs with the number of overall calls increasing from 54 849 in 2019/20 to 157 952 in 2020/21.
According to the department, the four quarterly crime statistics for the year 2020/21 indicated that a total of 46 447 sexual offences were reported. The Department of Health also reported a total of 36 363 new sexual assault cases which only took place at public facilities for the year 2020/21. According to these statistics, 9 518 people were raped from January to March 2021.
“These numbers might be difficult to comprehend, or may even seem unbelievable to some, however, just in the past month, we must read stories of sexual assault allegations at UCT, stories of policemen in court for requesting bribes to make rape cases disappear, policemen also murdering their girlfriends and wives, stories of murdered children in Limpopo, the story of the man who murdered his estranged wife and dumped her body in a pit toilet. The stories go on and on,” said Nkoana-Mashabane.
According to her, it is concerning that stories are emerging in the media of women who are deciding to drop their cases due to several different reasons ranging from women being pressured to drop their rape or sexual assault cases by friends and family to those who wish to leave the past behind and no longer carry the emotional burden which comes with the case being investigated.
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“We will soon be presenting our Year 1 Report on the Implementation of the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence to President Ramaphosa. What is clear is that even though government has committed an immense amount of resources to ending GBVF, men continue to abuse, rape and murder women. The department calls on all South Africans to play their part in fighting this scourge and to unite in the fight against GBVF,” said Nkoana-Mashabane.
The department encourages everyone to be on the lookout for early warning signs of gender-based violence and to report anything out of the ordinary to the SAPS for further investigation.
How to play your part:
- Increase awareness and visibility: Incorporate GBVF key messages in all discussions, addresses in all aspects of your daily life
- Utilise GBVF posters in your spaces
- Partner with government, business, media houses, private sector in hosting GBVF events and heighten communications around it
- Leverage on other mega events such as sporting events, national days, themed days, conferences etc to spread messages on ending GBVF
- Host lectures, debates and discussions on GVBF on topics such as eradicating patriarchal attitudes
- Host learner competitions on equality, justice and human dignity
- Host engagements with men and boys to encourage positive masculinity
- Utilise your social media platforms to condemn any form of GBVF
- Report any act or sign of gender-based violence
- Join a hub for survivors and victims who need help and corporates who can offer help.
Know and share these contact details:
- GBV Command Centre: 0800 428 428 / *120*7867# from any cellphone
- Persons with disabilities, SMS “help” to 31531
- Women abuse helpline: 0800 150 150
- Childline: 0800 055 555
- SAPS Crime Stop: 0860 10111 / SMS Crime Line: 32211
- GBVF-related service complaints (SAPS): 0800 333 177
- National AIDS helpline: 0800 012 322
- National human trafficking helpline: 0800 222 777
- Suicide helpline: 0800 567 567
Social Media platforms:
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