Content Warning:
This research includes references to abuse experienced by women and girls. All survivors and family members have provided their informed consent to share their stories: some using their own names, others anonymously.
South Africa has one of the highest levels of gender-based violence in the world. In November 2024, the first national study on the prevalence of gender-based violence found that over 35.5% women reported experiencing physical and/or sexual violence during their lifetime — a number that likely underestimates the scale of the problem, as most incidents go unreported. In one year alone, between 2023 to 2024, the South African Police Service and the National Prosecuting Authority reported that more than:
12,800 women were murdered or subjected to attempted murder
63,000 women were subjected to serious assault
53,000 sexual offenses cases were opened with the police
Gender-Based Violence in the Western Cape
CFJ chose to focus on the Western Cape because of the staggering levels of gender-based violence in this region. In 2020, the South African authorities identified 30 hotspots for gender-based violence across the country, eight of which are in the Western Cape (Delft, Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Gugulethu, Kraaifontein, and Bellville).
Despite the high levels of gender-based violence, most incidents remain undocumented, underreported and unaccounted within national statistics. Those who do brave the system and report incidents to the authorities face significant threats to their own safety and rarely see their perpetrators held accountable.
The Western Cape government reviewed our research and acknowledged the challenges and efforts to solve them in their response. Read on to hear powerful firsthand accounts from the survivors, and CFJ’s recommendations to tackle systemic failures – from urgent reform and adequate funding to ensure access to justice to increased survivor-centered training and services.
I’ve been failed multiple times in my life: as a survivor, as a woman, as a mother.
Fundamental Failures at Every Stage of the Justice Process
South Africa has a strong constitutional and legal framework to combat violence against women. But survivors of gender-based violence in the Western Cape described failures at every stage of the process, from reporting to trial. Civil society organizations in South Africa have advocated for decades for South African authorities to adopt and implement measures to tackle such violence, but women and girls are still routinely ignored, disbelieved, and left unsupported.
WJW asked survivors and those advocating on their behalf about their experiences at each stage of the justice process. 93% of survivors surveyed highlighted failures in the criminal justice system. Many survivors saw perpetrators escape consequences time and again, and lost hope that they would ever see justice.
Click on each section below for survivors’ accounts of failures at each stage:
I became very despondent and discouraged to report the matters and request an interdict [protection order], because I felt that the state failed me.
Causes, Systemic Failures, and Paths Forward
Legacies of colonialism and apartheid, along with harsh economic inequality and harmful social norms, have an outsized influence on the high rates of gender-based violence in the Western Cape, as well as on how survivors are treated. Through conversations with women on challenges they face at each step in the justice process, WJW and its partners identified six overarching barriers to justice that define the experiences of countless survivors throughout the region.
Explore the root causes of the crisis, the systemic failures that perpetuate it, and what needs to be done to prevent gender-based violence, protect survivors, and ensure accountability:
Causes and Drivers of Gender-Based Violence
Causes and Drivers of Gender-Based Violence
Legacies of colonialism and apartheid are among the key factors contributing to the high rates of gender-based violence in the Western Cape and to the way survivors who report their abuse are treated. The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, noted how South Africa is deeply influenced by its violent past characterized by divisions of race, class, and gender. Socio-economic inequality in South Africa—the highest in the world according to the World Bank—and harmful socio-cultural norms, such as misogyny, are also key contributors to gender-based violence. 93% of women surveyed reported socio-economic factors as key drivers of gender-based violence in their communities.
In addition, limited opportunities for young men and a growing underground economy, spurred by government policies to control alcohol and drugs, have enhanced the power of gangs and contributed to the normalization of violence in South African communities.
Systemic Failures: Cross-Cutting Barriers to Justice
Systemic Failures: Cross-Cutting Barriers to Justice
Our research showed that six systemic barriers to justice cut across every stage of the process:
1. Failures by officials. Survivors reported that officials consistently failed to meet their legal obligations in GBV cases. 85% of women surveyed reported police incompetence.
2. Mistrust of institutions. Survivors report an extreme lack of faith in the police and justice system due to failures to take women’s cases seriously. Lengthy investigations, case delays and low conviction rates compound this, deterring survivors from reporting abuse.
3. Lack of cross-institutional coordination. Officials fail to follow established coordination protocols, putting the burden on survivors to facilitate the required paperwork and interactions between police, the medical system, the judiciary, and social services. This fuels delays, risks losing evidence, and adds to the time, resources and emotional burden survivors face.
4. Lack of adequate infrastructure, resourcing, and services. 79% of survivors noted a lack of resources for police services, highlighting broader resource challenges – from inadequate public infrastructure to an overburdened justice system that lacks effective protection for survivors.
5. Geographic and socio-economic factors. Women in rural or disadvantaged areas lack access to public transport and need to travel long distances to reach police stations, health centers, and courts. 87% of survivors reported that they did not have the financial resources to access such services. In areas where criminal gangs operate, such as townships and informal settlements in the Cape Flats region of the Western Cape, they intimidate victims and witnesses and prevent them from seeking recourse or continuing their cases.
6. Victim’s lack of awareness of laws and their rights. 83% of survivors surveyed said they did not know about the resources available to them.
What Needs to Be Done
What Needs to Be Done
The work of WJW and its partners revealed major flaws and shortcomings at every step of the justice process. Survivors are repeatedly failed and exposed to re-traumatization, leading to disillusionment with the system. 92% of women surveyed reported that they had less trust in the system after going through the criminal justice process than they had before reporting.
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, the Department of Health, the South African Police Service, and the Thuthuzela Care Centers (TCCs) should:
- Undertake urgent reform and provide adequate funding to ensure gender-based violence survivors can access justice, including information relating to their case, and available services, and are treated with care, respect, and dignity at every stage of the justice process.
- Increase survivor-centered training for the police, medical practitioners, prosecutors, judges, and others working with survivors in the justice system; and ensure accountability including use of disciplinary proceedings for misconduct of officials in gender-based violence cases.
- Enhance accessibility to and provision of survivor-centered services in police stations, hospitals, TCCs, courts, and increase coordination between institutions.
Increased accountability and survivor-centered training for the police, medical practitioners, prosecutors, judges, and others working with survivors in the justice system is an immediate necessity. So too is enhanced accessibility to and provision of survivor-centered services in police stations, hospitals, TCCs, courts, and at every touchpoint for survivors in their fight for justice.
More compassion is needed; more care is needed. Sometimes, you are so afraid to be in the same room as the person that abused or committed violence against you, and you need that support and a guarantee that the same transgressions will not be committed again. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and it is only you and the law and those who harm you.
Our Work Continues
WJW shared the findings of this research project with the relevant Western Cape and South African government representatives. WJW and its partners continue to build on this work and fight for justice and accountability for gender-based violence survivors, including through strategic litigation and advocacy.
The Western Cape Government responded to WJW on December 5, 2024:
This is invaluable research that the Western Cape Government will be able to put to good use for our residents. While tragically it confirms much of what we already know, we deeply appreciate constructive efforts to better understand the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) so we can work even more closely with our partners both in civil society and in other spheres of government to combat this scourge. This kind of empirical data can only strengthen the on-the ground knowledge and experience of our officials and help us improve the work we currently do. We welcome research that adds to our body of knowledge and provides concrete evidence that highlights the various challenges survivors of GBV face.
Read the full response from the Western Cape Government here.
Acknowledgments
This research was conducted as part of the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s Waging Justice for Women initiative, with generous funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The research was conducted in collaboration with the Women’s Legal Center, Women Lead Movement, Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham and Microsoft’s AI For Good Lab.
This project would not have been possible without the participation, support, and expertise provided by hundreds of survivors, service providers, and valued partners in the Western Cape and across South Africa. We deeply appreciate your trust, confidence, and collaboration.
Special thanks to:
Melene Rossouw, senior consultant and lead researcher, and Taylor Hadnôt, consultant researcher
Microsoft AI for Good Lab
University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab
Women’s Legal Center
Women Lead Movement, particularly Nicola Cloete