The numbers as they stand in 2026
SAPS recorded 9 782 rapes between January and March 2026, a national rate of 15.4 per 100 000. Two out of three sampled sexual offences happened at a residence belonging to the victim/survivor, the person who harmed them, or someone known to both. In the same quarter, 37 333 domestic violence related cases were recorded, almost 70% of them assault charges. Stats SA’s Victims of Crime Survey indicates that fewer than half of sexual offences reach a police station, which places the real figure higher than the recorded one.
National improvement is not uniform improvement
Parliament’s own analysis of those statistics reaches a conclusion worth sitting with. Several categories are declining nationally, but the burden stays concentrated in particular provinces, districts and police stations. The Eastern Cape records 22.5 rapes per 100 000 while Gauteng records 10.7. A national average conceals both the districts carrying the weight and the ones already improving.
What a national plan can and cannot do
The National Strategic Plan on GBVF gives South Africa six pillars, national targets and an accountability architecture. What it cannot do from Pretoria is finalise a case at a named court, shorten a waiting time at a named facility, or change how a survivor is received when she arrives at a charge office at two in the morning. Those are local numbers with local causes, which means localisation is not a slogan attached to the NSP. It is the delivery mechanism.
How a 100-Day Challenge closes that gap
Three design choices carry the method.
The goal is a survivor outcome, not an activity. Committees formed and dialogues hosted are inputs. A protection order issued the same day, a case finalised in weeks rather than years, a dignity pack handed over at the point of reporting: these are changes a survivor can feel. Teams are moved off counting activity and onto measuring impact.
The baseline is local. Teams establish where their own institution sits today, then set a goal against that number. Results become attributable, comparable and transferable to the next district without repeating the analysis from scratch.
The team is frontline and cross-functional. Prosecutors, SAPS officers, court clerks and managers, social workers, health workers, municipal officials, lecturers and students work together for 100 days on one shared goal. GBVF cases cross institutional boundaries, so the response has to cross them too.
What court teams are working on now
Court teams across Limpopo are mid-cycle under Pillar 3: Justice, Safety and Protection, with NPA, SAPS, DOJ&CD, Correctional Services, the judiciary, Legal Aid South Africa, SAWLA, the Limpopo Men’s Forum and civil society partners around one table. Their goals sit on backlogs that have waited years, on monthly finalisation rates, on case withdrawals, and on how survivors are treated when they walk in.
The method has a record behind it. In 2025, Thohoyandou Magistrate Court finalised 889 of 1 039 backlog cases. Nkowankowa and Ga-Kgapane cleared their full domestic violence backlogs, Nkowankowa reaching 100% through virtual hearings.
The teams set those goals themselves and delivered those results themselves. That is what makes the approach repeatable in the next district.
Seventy years ago, 20 000 women did not wait for the system to be ready before climbing the steps. Wathint’ abafazi, wathint’ imbokodo.
Women’s Month