President Cyril Ramaphosa told South Africa tonight that the government’s response to gender-based violence and femicide has “not been enough”. Seven years after addressing the nation about the same crisis, he announced another review, another plan and another set of reporting deadlines.
Women do not need the President to identify the failures again. They need him to explain why his government has allowed them to continue.
“The President spoke about protection orders that fail to protect, forensic samples that remain unprocessed and cases that collapse because dockets are lost or investigations are poor. He knows where the system fails. He has known for years,” says Juanita du Preez, national spokesperson for Action Society. “What did women hear tonight that gives them reason to believe it will work differently tomorrow?”
The President has directed officials to review unresolved cases within 60 days and prepare recovery plans for stalled cases within 90 days. He has ordered a funded plan to reduce forensic backlogs. Action Society will hold government to those deadlines, but a review does not arrest a suspect, a recovery plan does not bring a case to trial, and a forensic plan does not process a single sample.
The DNA backlog remains. The President said a forensic sample must not sit unprocessed while a perpetrator remains free. Why has that been allowed to happen, and when will the outstanding samples be processed? His government must publish the size and age of the backlog, fill critical vacancies and report actual reductions, not merely the existence of a new plan.
Protection orders remain unreliable in practice. The President acknowledged that an order can become “merely a piece of paper” while an abuser continues to threaten a woman. Yet tonight he announced no immediate measure to ensure that orders are served promptly or that police act when breaches are reported. How many women have sought protection and been failed while the state prepared its latest response?
Court delays continue to deny justice. Action Society monitors cases in which survivors and families endure repeated postponements while investigations, forensic results and court processes drag on. The President’s case review must result in arrests, completed investigations and trials that proceed. Government must publish the reasons cases stall and hold the responsible officials accountable.
The National Register for Sex Offenders was absent from the address. Action Society has repeatedly called for meaningful public access to the register, with appropriate safeguards, so that it can help protect children and other vulnerable people. Why does this demand remain unanswered in a speech devoted to prevention?
The public still needs crime statistics for women and children. The President read the names of women and girls who have been killed. Those lives must never be reduced to numbers, but government must publish separate, regular figures for crimes against women and children. Without them, South Africans cannot measure the scale of the crisis or judge whether government’s promises are making anyone safer.
The President also announced municipal safety audits and a proposed framework on alcohol-related violence. Unsafe public spaces must be addressed. But many women face danger from men they know. A repaired streetlight cannot protect a woman whose complaint is dismissed, whose protection order is not enforced or whose attacker’s case never reaches trial.
“President Ramaphosa says he does not want another President to deliver the same speech seven years from now. South Africans did not want to hear it again tonight,” says Du Preez. “Publish the backlog. Show us which stalled cases have moved. Tell us how protection orders will be enforced. Open the conversation about the National Register for Sex Offenders. Restore the statistics. Then report what has changed for women seeking help, not how many more meetings government has held.”
