Fifteen women are murdered every day in South Africa — a shocking reminder of the country’s gender-based violence epidemic. In total, sixty-three South Africans are killed daily, according to the latest police crime statistics. Acting Police Minister Professor Firoz Cachalia reported that more than 10 000 people lost their lives across the quarterly reporting periods from April to September.
This was his first SAPS report since President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed him to replace Senzo Mchunu, now under scrutiny in a commission of inquiry over political interference in police investigations. The figures lay bare a nation still battling a culture of violence, with women and girls paying the heaviest price. Behind that chilling statistic are names, families, and futures extinguished.
Yet as the annual 16 Days of No Violence Against Women and Children campaign — from 25 November to 10 December — comes to an end next week, the violence does not. Despite government fanfare and civil-society activism, the attacks on women continue unabated, prompting activists to renew their call for a 365-day national campaign to confront what has become a post-apartheid pandemic. As a country celebrated for its constitutional reforms and progressive legal framework, are we paying lip service to the safety of women and children?
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The latest crime statistics from April to September 2025 confirm a tragic truth: women and children remain trapped in the crossfire of a violent society that claims over 60 lives daily and recorded more than 10 000 murders in just six months. Cape Town — a city of stunning vistas and deep social fractures — is preparing to host one of the world’s largest gatherings on violence prevention and safety. Organisers expect 1 600 delegates to descend on the Mother City, a place where magical mountains and ocean views stand in stark contrast to brutal inequality, gang violence, and some of the highest GBV and murder rates worldwide.
In his debut quarterly crime report as acting minister, Cachalia warned that sexual offences and gender-based violence remain “unacceptably high”, with increases recorded in attempted sexual offences and contact sexual crimes. He noted that certain categories of crime remain stubbornly resistant to policing interventions, including attempted murder, common assault, commercial crime, and crimes driven by organised syndicates. GBV is no longer a crisis we can claim to be “fighting”.
It has become a pandemic embedded in our national psyche — a daily reality that can no longer be normalised, ignored, or managed through seasonal awareness campaigns. This truth was starkly displayed during last month’s G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg, when women’s rights groups staged a dramatic “lie-down” protest to demand global recognition of South Africa’s GBV emergency. Their message — that women and girls in cities, small towns, and rural villages live in daily fear — confronted global leaders overseeing two-thirds of the world’s economy.
Just days later, Cape Town — consistently ranked among the world’s most dangerous cities — reported 200 murders in 100 days. It was a devastating snapshot of a city famous for its beauty and protests and political heritage, but scarred by violent inequality, gangsterism, guns, local and foreign criminal syndicates and deep neglect of vulnerable communities. A global crisis, a South African epicentre: The World Health Organization’sViolence Against Women Prevalence Estimates 2023 reveal the immense scale of the crisis.
According to the report, 840 million women worldwide have experienced intimate partner or sexual violence at least once in their lifetime. A further 263 million have endured non-partner sexual violence since age 15 — a figure likely to be under-reported due to fear, stigma, and systemic failures to protect survivors.
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