‘Promises are not enough’: experts, activists demand action after Ramaphosa’s GBV address

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address on the murders of women has raised varied reactions from experts as they welcomed the address but also warned that government must now move beyond promises and show measurable action.

Women for Change founder and GBV activist Sabrina Walter said government needs to provide clear funding, timelines and measurable outcomes for the interventions announced by the president.

Walter welcomed the president’s acknowledgement that government had not done enough in recent years, but said women could not be protected by speeches alone.

She questioned why it has taken months for Ramaphosa to address the country with urgency on GBV after it was declared a national disaster in November 2025.

Walter also questioned whether measures such as cutting grass and repairing streetlights would protect women who face violence inside their own homes.

She said survivors need to be able to report domestic violence without being dismissed or turned away, while high-risk accused perpetrators should be subjected to proper risk assessments.

Walter also raised concerns about South Africa’s DNA backlog and called for government to publish current and detailed crime statistics relating to women and children.

“Without reliable data, where does the government’s response even begin?” she said.

She called for quarterly public reports showing arrests, prosecutions, convictions, forensic turnaround times and the number of stalled cases that had progressed.

Walter said prevention also needs to start much earlier, including education in schools about consent, equality and healthy relationships.

“Boys and men must be actively included in prevention programmes and harmful attitudes must be addressed before they escalate into violence,” she said.

Sonke Gender Justice welcomed Ramaphosa’s acknowledgement that measures taken over the past seven years had not been enough.

The organisation also welcomed his rejection of approaches that restrict women’s freedom or place responsibility for male violence on women.

Sonke Gender Justice said its response was one of cautious concern, as many of the issues raised by Ramaphosa were not new.

Investigating cases, processing forensic evidence and repairing unsafe public spaces are necessary, but they do not constitute a comprehensive prevention strategy.—  Sonke Gender Justice

The organisation said the measures announced could make a difference if they were implemented urgently, properly resourced and backed by clear accountability.

But it warned that the response remained heavily focused on what happens after violence has already occurred.

“Investigating cases, processing forensic evidence and repairing unsafe public spaces are necessary, but they do not constitute a comprehensive prevention strategy,” the organisation said.

GBVF expert and media advocate Cameron Kasambala said the president’s address showed that government was considering a range of interventions, including strengthening the police response and dealing with cold cases.

However, she questioned how government would measure whether each intervention was working.

She said the scale of the GBV crisis meant government could not simply introduce several initiatives without ensuring that each one was properly implemented.

Kasambala said poor follow-through, a lack of analysis and inadequate auditing could contribute to backlogs and discrepancies.

She said government needed to show the public how it would track and analyse progress.

“So while the plan is great and the initiatives sound fantastic and we are hearing good things in words, how are we going to track and analyse it?” she asked.

Institute for Security Studies consultant Willem Els said reopening cold cases could lead to breakthroughs as police make use of improved forensic technology.

“Every case is unique and some cases you get an early break depending on the evidence gathered and the dynamics around the case,” he said.

Els also warned that an arrest should not be seen as the end of an investigation.

Els said the number of arrests should not be the only measure of police success. He raised concerns about suspects being released shortly after arrest because investigators lacked the capacity to build strong cases.

“A very big percentage of those people are walking free within 48 hours because the police just don’t have the capacity to successfully investigate it,” he said.

He said criminals and gangs watch how police operate and could take advantage of weaknesses.

Els said advances in forensic technology could give police another opportunity to examine evidence that was collected years ago.

“The technology that we have today in forensics are way, way, way better than the technology we had 10 or 15 years ago,” he said.

Els also called for experienced retired detectives to be brought back on contract to help current investigators. He said senior detectives should mentor and guide investigators dealing with complex cases.

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) National Gender Structure also welcomed Ramaphosa’s four-point plan and urged community members, including nurses, to participate in municipal safety audits within 60 days.

The organisation said the audits should identify unsafe areas, broken streetlights, unsafe routes and poorly secured parks and cemeteries.

It said prioritising forensic cases and removing bottlenecks could help speed up cases going to court.

Amnesty International South Africa executive director Shenilla Mohamed said women and communities were still dealing with a lack of trust in the police.

“Improving the quality and efficiency of investigations is crucial for ensuring successful prosecutions.”

Mohamed said police also need to treat survivors with respect and dignity when they report cases.

She called for adequate resources, investigator training, stronger forensic capacity and action to address the DNA backlog.

Mohamed said Amnesty had taken note of Ramaphosa’s announcement but believed the measures came too late.

“These are not new issues and as a country we have been talking about ways to tackle the high numbers of GBVF, especially since 2019 when women took to the streets to protest, and yet here we are again in the face of continued attacks against women,” she said.

She said the timelines announced by Ramaphosa would only matter if they resulted in action and consequences for those who failed to act.

“Municipalities cannot be allowed to ignore their obligations to make public spaces safer for women, and there must be consequences where they fail to do so,” she said.

She also called for femicide to be recognised as a specific crime in South African law.

“Femicide constitutes the most extreme form of violence against women and the most violent manifestation of the discrimination and inequality women face,” Mohamed said.

She said criminalising femicide alone would not stop the killings, but could provide another tool to hold the state accountable.

Public finance expert Matshidiso Lencoasa said South Africa’s strong laws and policies on GBV meant little if government did not provide enough money to implement them.

“Some of these policies seem like promises to our country, but to the people and women in our country, they are set up to fail because they’re not invested in. There are no resources to back them,” Lencoasa said.

She said shelters for survivors were among the programmes being affected by funding constraints and called for GBV to be treated as a whole-of-government response, with departments such as health, justice and police receiving dedicated allocations.

Lencoasa said the upcoming medium-term budget would be an important test, with the public needing to see where the money was going and whether parliament and communities would be able to monitor how it was spent.