Advocacy Statement:  The Ongoing Crisis of Gender-Based Violence and Sexual Offences in South Africa

According to the recent SAPS statistics, a total of 9 782 rape cases was recorded during the reporting period, while sexual assault cases increased by 4.2%, and attempted sexual offences also rose by 2.0%, from 656 to 669 cases. These figures remain deeply concerning and demonstrate that sexual violence continues to be one of the most urgent public health, human rights, and social justice challenges facing South Africa today. 

More importantly, the statistics consistently reveal that violence does not primarily occur between strangers; it often happens within homes, intimate relationships, and familiar social environments, with a total of murders and nearly half of all rapes occurring in the residences of the perpetrator or victim. This is a total number of 4 620 out of 9 782 rape incidents being committed in familiar homes, by people known to the victims. 

This fundamentally challenges dominant public narratives that frame violence as an external threat, committed in dark alleys by strangers, and instead confirms that South Africa’s GBV crisis is rooted in everyday relational and domestic spaces, and by people known to the victim. This reality demands urgent reframing of how violence is understood and addressed. Sexual and Gender-based violence (SGBV) is not only a criminal issue; it is a structural and social crisis shaped by entrenched inequality, economic exclusion, harmful gender norms, poverty and unemployment, substance abuse, and weak social protection systems.  

These socio-economic ills create conditions in which violence is normalised, tolerated, or hidden. The continued prevalence of sexual violence and GBV within homes also highlights a critical gap in current prevention approaches. South Africa remains highly focused on reactive systems, i.e., policing, reporting, and post-violence response, while underinvesting in effective prevention within families, schools, and communities. As a result, violence is often addressed only after harm has occurred, rather than before. 

A critical response to this crisis requires a shift from viewing GBV and sexual violence as isolated incidents to understanding it as a predictable outcome of social and structural conditions. Prevention must therefore be embedded in everyday systems of social life by strengthening economic empowerment for young people, expanding access to psychosocial support, integrating relationship and emotional literacy into behavioural change programmes and education systems, and building early-warning and support mechanisms within households and communities. 

It also requires challenging the persistent silence that surrounds violence in domestic spaces. When violence is treated as private, it becomes invisible until it reaches a crisis point. Breaking this silence is essential to prevention. We further recognise the significant role that harmful alcohol consumption plays in fuelling interpersonal violence, sexual assault, and domestic abuse. This quarter alone, 7 267 incidents of rape, attempted murder, and other forms were linked to alcohol use. This calls for stronger alcohol harm reduction policies, prevention programmes, and public health interventions.  

As Soul City Institute, we call for an urgent national shift from reactive responses to community-rooted, prevention-led action on GBV and sexual violence. We call on government, civil society, schools, and communities to: 

• Invest in prevention systems inside homes, schools, and communities, not only crisis response mechanisms. 

• Invest in prevention programmes targeting harmful gender norms and toxic masculinity. 

• Prioritise integrated youth economic empowerment and skills programmes as a core GBV prevention strategy. 

• Strengthen child protection systems; 

• Embed relationship, consent, digital, and emotional literacy into education systems as fundamental life skills. 

• Advance evidence-based alcohol harm reduction policies. 

• Improve accountability and conviction rates of sexual offences. 

South Africa cannot continue to normalise violence against women and children. Ending violence requires more than awareness; it requires transforming the conditions in which violence is produced and sustained.