Understanding the historical, social and cultural drivers behind GBV

SA continues to experience extremely high levels of gender-based violence (GBV), particularly rape and femicide. These crimes occur disproportionately in historically marginalised black African townships. Shaped by apartheid-era spatial planning, these communities remain characterised by overcrowding, substandard housing, persistent poverty, and long-standing exclusion from essential services.

In such contexts, GBV must also be understood as a symptom of social development failure — the avoidable obstruction of people’s ability to meet their basic human needs. While rape and femicide are never justifiable, and recognising structural drivers does not excuse perpetrators, understanding the broader social context in which these crimes occur is critical. Persistent poverty and unemployment, coupled with weak social services and sustained exposure to violence, continue to reinforce conditions in which GBV persists.

Against this backdrop, my National Research Foundation (NRF)-funded study drew on key informant interviews and the voices of marginalised African men who have committed GBV, including rape and femicide. The study sought to understand how such extreme violence emerges within marginalised township contexts. The findings suggest that perpetrators are not simply isolated individuals but products of structurally violent environments characterised by multiple, intersecting social development failures.

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Persistent poverty and the absence of sustainable livelihoods emerged as central to understanding violence. Many participants grew up in conditions of extreme deprivation that often continued into adulthood. Chronic unemployment undermined their sense of dignity and masculine identity, producing frustration, anger, and hopelessness.

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