Ghosted at Sona 2026: Is Ramaphosa’s government really taking GBV and femicide seriously?

In the time it takes to boil a kettle, President Ramaphosa had finished the few sentences he delivered on gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) at the 2026 State of the Nation Address (Sona). To the survivors waiting for help, those 72 seconds felt less like a plan and more like treating an official disaster as a footnote. GBVF was officially declared a national disaster on 20 November 2025, mobilised by over a million voices.

Such a declaration was supposed to be the turning point. A national disaster, usually, demands a nation’s full attention (and its chequebook). Yet, the crickets on funding allocations, timelines, and concrete interventions were loud at the Sona.

Has the urgency in treating GBVF as an immediate national emergency evaporated? Civil society group Women for Change operations and advocacy manager, Merlize Jogiat, toldThe Citizenthat since the GBVF classification, the government has declared two other disasters. Namely,floods and rainsin several provinces, and thefoot-and-mouth disease(FMD).

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Both came with timelines, implementation strategies, and budget allocations. GBVF, meanwhile, is three months into its “disaster” status and remains a ghost while body counts still rise.

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