Protecting women requires funding the full justice and policing chain

The discovery of women’s bodies across Ekurhuleni again exposes the gap between policy and protection. The women’s families deserve answers and justice. The wider public deserves to know whether police personnel and public money are being directed to the communities facing the greatest danger.Visible policing is a critical measure of that protection. South Africa has roughly one police officer for every 412 people, or 243 per 100,000 residents. The frequently cited figure of 300 officers per 100,000 is a historical survey median, not a universal United Nations standard, so population ratios alone cannot determine the required establishment. The more relevant test is policing demand. The SAPS recorded 27,494 murders in 2023/24, about 76 murders a day, while the Human Sciences Research Council found that about one in three women aged 18 and older had experienced physical violence in her lifetime. A police service confronting this level of violent crime and gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) requires greater operational capacity than one serving a substantially safer population.The national ratio also overstates what communities experience because it counts personnel who may not be available for patrols and masks vacancies, uneven deployment, administrative duties and vehicle shortages. A responsive budget should therefore fund deployable capacity, not merely enlarge the establishment: trained officers on predictable foot and vehicle patrols in high-risk areas; properly staffed Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) units; functioning vehicles and communications; and manageable detective caseloads. High-risk stations should publish staffing levels, vacancies, patrol hours and response times so that additional resources can be linked to improved performance.Significant challengesWhile the nation calls for justice for the victims in Ekurhuleni and countless others, the significant challenges and resource constraints confronting the South African Police Service (SAPS) remain glaringly evident. Detective capacity remains strained: 2025 station-level data in the Western Cape alone recorded 53 detective vacancies at Cape Town Central, 43 at Nyanga and 38 at Kraaifontein. The pressure extends across the justice chain. Parliament reported that the national forensic DNA backlog had exceeded 140,000 cases by March 2025, while the Auditor-General recorded 37,497 criminal court backlog cases at 31 March 2024, rising to 37,838 by 30 June 2024. The Auditor-General also warned that the absence of an integrated system made it difficult to track a case from its registration with the SAPS through judgement, incarceration and reintegration. These pressures do not mean that investment is futile; rather, the results already achieved show what properly resourced specialist capacity can deliver. Between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, SAPS’s Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences units secured 2,941 convictions and arrested 22,219 suspects. Yet these gains remain vulnerable when detective vacancies, forensic delays and court backlogs prevent cases from progressing efficiently.Accountability also weakens after conviction. The National Register for Sex Offenders remains closed to the public, and Parliament heard in November 2025 that the South African Council for Educators vets more than 50,000 applications against the register each year. Due to continued reliance on manual submissions, constrained capacity and delayed responses, applicants were often registered without a clearance result and instead on the strength of a signed declaration. The funding case must therefore extend across the full justice chain: filling priority detective and specialist posts; expanding forensic and case-management capacity; integrating police, court, correctional and registry systems; and staffing the register adequately to deliver timely vetting. Without protected, multi-year funding for these functions, convictions will remain too difficult to secure and convicted offenders may continue to move unnoticed into positions involving vulnerable people.Adequately resourced Thusong Service Centres can provide the accessible link between these services. The government’s 2022/23 factsheet recorded 197 established centres, of which only 121 were fully functional. Every operational centre should meet a funded GBVF service standard: Private intake facilities; Access to a social worker and trained police liaison; Assistance with protection orders; Direct referral to shelters, health services and Thuthuzela Care Centres;Secure digital case referral; Emergency transport support; and Dedicated follow-up services. Performance should be audited and published for each centre.Meaningful expenditureFunding must be protected, targeted and measurable. The 2026/27 policing budget set aside R1.6-billion for GBVF-related activities, with a further R50-million added to provincial baselines. The government should demonstrate that these amounts are additional to existing obligations and report, by province and station, what they fund: patrol hours, priority vacancies, vehicle availability, forensic turnaround times, victim-friendly rooms and specialist investigations. Expenditure is meaningful only if it improves response times, case progression and survivor safety.The National Strategic Plan on GBVF and the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide already provide the policy framework. They now require a costed implementation plan that assigns responsibility, provincial allocations, annual targets and quarterly public reporting. A declaration or strategy that does not change frontline capacity will not change outcomes.A credible funding programme should have three parts: Treasury should protect a multi-year SAPS frontline allocation for priority vacancies, vehicles, fuel, communications, forensic capacity, FCS units and intelligence-led hotspot patrols. It should establish a conditional grant for GBVF-ready Thuthuzela Centres, using population, distance, reported violence and poverty to direct resources, and tying transfers to minimum staffing and service standards.Provinces should fund shelters, legal assistance and community organisations through predictable multi-year agreements and timely transfers. Each allocation should have a responsible institution, delivery deadline and measurable indicator.Parliament should require a consolidated GBVF expenditure statement covering Police, Social Development, Health, Justice and provincial governments. The appropriations, finance and relevant portfolio committees should scrutinise spending and results, including police availability, case progression, shelter capacity, protection orders served and successful referrals through Thusong and other frontline facilities.South Africa does not have to choose between visible policing and survivor support. It must fund both as one chain of protection: officers who deter and respond to violence, investigators who secure justice, and accessible services that help survivors reach safety. If GBVF is a national priority, that priority must be reflected in deployable police capacity, functioning service centres and transparent budgets that deliver measurable results. DM