As South Africa enters another school holiday and long-weekend period, Action Society is calling out government’s blatant double standard: while road safety receives national campaigns, funding, and police visibility, the country’s violent crime epidemic continues to be met with silence and inaction.
South Africa’s road-traffic fatality rate stands at approximately 24,5 deaths per 100 000 people. These figures have prompted predictable bursts of awareness drives, high-visibility policing, and national mobilisation.
But at the same time, South Africa maintains the label of being the rape capital of the world. The South African Police Service’s Q4 2024/25 crime statistics revealed that 10 688 rapes were recorded, with 119 women being raped per day, almost 5 every hour. During this three-month period alone, 5 727 murders were recorded — averaging 1 909 per month, 64 per day, or 3 every hour. Attempted murders reached 6 985, which translates to 2 328 monthly, 78 daily, and 3 hourly.
“Every year the government launch road-safety war rooms when children are on holiday—yet remain utterly passive while women, children and communities are terrorised daily,” says Juanita du Preez, spokesperson for Action Society. “Is a child killed on the road worth more than a girl murdered at home? A mother raped in secret worth less than a driver in a crash?”
The government treats road deaths like a national emergency—mobilising resources, media visibility, and coordinated action. But when it comes to murder, rape and gender-based violence, there are no national blitzes, no urgent task teams, no widespread public campaigns. It is a silence that speaks volumes.
Action Society is demanding that the same visibility, budget, and political will currently allocated to road safety be directed toward tackling South Africa’s violent crime crisis. This includes launching nationwide awareness and prevention campaigns, deploying visible crime-prevention operations, and holding law enforcement accountable for outcomes—not just appearances.
South Africans are not only dying on the roads. They are being raped, hunted, and murdered in their homes and on their streets. South Africa requires urgent structural change and police accountability.
Violence is not seasonal. Safety must not be selective.
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