South Africa struggles to give detail on anti-GBV funds
Kgomotso Modise | Eyewitness News
Sept. 25, 2026
Over the last two months, the bodies of nine women have been discovered in Ekurhuleni, and last week, police added the discovery of a female body in a dam in Moroka, Soweto to its investigation.
As South Africa laments another wave of gender-based violence (GBV)-related killings, some government departments have struggled to give a detailed report of exactly how much they have allocated to the cause and how much has been used since the classification of the national disaster. Over the last two months, the bodies of nine women have been discovered in Ekurhuleni, and last week, police added the discovery of a female body in a dam in Moroka, Soweto to its investigation.
This comes 10 months after GBV was classified as a national disaster, calling for all government departments to reprioritise their budgets, allocating some funds towards the scourge. But since then, the government has been unable to give a clear answer on how funding was redirected by each department. Eyewitness News approached some departments that are meant to be at the forefront of the fight against GBV for a report on their allocations. One of the departments that features prominently on the government’s priorities post-classification of GBV as a national disaster is the Department of Justice. Among their tasks is ensuring that survivors receive justice and protection and reviewing legal and regulatory frameworks. However, when asked by Eyewitness News how they redirected their funds to address the classification and how the money has since been used, the department has only been able to give its 2026/2027 budget allocation of R7.5 million. The department claims that this has gone towards Victim Empowerment Programmes and sexual violence-related efforts but has not said how much of its budget has been used. At the same time, the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, which should be coordinating the efforts by each department, has admitted to not knowing exactly how much money each department has been allocated and for what cause.
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