Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Sindisiwe Chikunga announces the priorities of South Africa’s newly established National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide following its inaugural meeting.
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South Africa’s newly established National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide has held its inaugural meeting, with its first priorities including a Shareholder Compact, a costing framework for the country’s response to gender-based violence and stronger oversight of the national strategy.
The statutory council, created under the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Act 9 of 2024, met in Pretoria on Monday as the government moved to operationalise a structure that was one of the resolutions of the 2018 Presidential Summit Against Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.
Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Sindisiwe Chikunga said the meeting yesterday marked the start of the council’s work after years of pressure from survivors, women’s organisations, civil society, and other sectors for a permanent body to coordinate South Africa’s response.
“Our inaugural meeting today is mandated by the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Act 9 of 2024. By convening this morning, we have effectively set the long-overdue ball rolling.”
Chikunga said the council was beginning its work against a grim backdrop, citing the Human Sciences Research Council’s first South African National Gender-Based Violence Prevalence Study, released in November 2024.
The study found that about 7.3 million women aged 18 and older had experienced physical violence in their lifetime, while more than 2.15 million had experienced sexual violence.
It also found that about 3.2 million women had experienced physical intimate-partner violence, while approximately 2.5 million men reported having perpetrated physical intimate-partner violence.
Chikunga also highlighted the study’s findings on women with disabilities, saying 14.6% had experienced sexual violence by a lifetime partner, compared with 7.2% of women without disabilities.
Police figures show that 50,511 GBVF cases were reported to SAPS during the 2025/26 financial year, with 30,736 resulting in arrests and/or referrals to the National Prosecuting Authority.
The SAPS figures classify GBVF cases across offences including murder, attempted murder, rape, sexual assault, abduction, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, common assault, attempted rape and contact sexual offences. Rape accounted for 36,217 of the 50,511 reported cases.
“These are not just statistics. These are South African women, daughters, sisters and girl children,” Chikunga said.
The minister said the council was beginning its work after the government classified GBVF as a national disaster in November 2025.
Chikunga described the council as a permanent, statutory and multisectoral mechanism intended to coordinate, monitor, and strengthen South Africa’s response to GBVF.
Its responsibilities, she said, include monitoring implementation of the National Strategic Plan on GBVF, advising government on policy and legislative reforms, promoting accountability, commissioning research, monitoring progress against national targets and mobilising resources.
Its mandate also includes strengthening prevention programmes and supporting survivor-centred interventions.
It brings together representatives from government, women’s rights and survivor advocacy organisations, community and faith-based groups, disability and youth organisations, LGBTQIA+ advocacy structures, researchers, traditional and community leaders, business, labour, and development partners.
Chikunga stressed that members had not been appointed simply to advance the interests of their respective sectors.
“The duty of the Council is to the Constitution, the Act, to women, girl children, survivors of GBVF and to the people of South Africa,” she said.
Among the priorities agreed at the inaugural meeting, Chikunga said, was the conclusion of a Shareholder Compact between the responsible ministry and the council.
The compact would establish what success should look like and how the council’s performance would be measured.
She said the council would also develop a comprehensive costing framework to determine what South Africa’s response to GBVF would require, identify resource gaps and develop a national investment case.
“No mandate succeeds without resources,” Chikunga said.
The call for a permanent, independent and multisectoral body was incorporated into the National Strategic Plan on GBVF 2020–2030 and later given legal effect through the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Act in 2024.
Chikunga said the responsibility now shifted to the council to deliver on that mandate.
“For this National Council on GBVF, the baseline has been established. The evidence has been gathered. The legislation has been enacted. The mandate has been conferred. The responsibility now rests with the National Council to fulfil its mission,” she said.
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