While these cases are shocking, there is another uncomfortable reality to confront: much of the violence experienced by women and girls happens within relationships and families, and the perpetrator is often someone they know. Data collected through NACOSA’s post-violence care programme found that 70% of sexual assault survivors knew the person who assaulted them.

This matters because violence does not begin with femicide. There are a host of warning signs and opportunities to intervene. Women and girls experiencing domestic and sexual violence need access to services that can help them get to safety, understand their rights, access medical and psychosocial care, obtain protection and navigate the justice system.

Yet the organisations providing these services are themselves under increasing pressure.

The National Shelter Movement of South Africa, which supports around 100 shelters nationally, reported this month that approximately 90% of shelters in its network are struggling with funding and other forms of support. And many highly experienced and effective community organisations working in the field of GBVF are facing dwindling resources at a time when it is needed the most.

South Africa has declared GBVF a national disaster and has a National Strategic Plan for GBVF. But it feels as if nothing has changed. A declaration and a national plan should be more than just paper and theory, it must translate into sustained resources for the organisations and community structures that are providing services to survivors every day.

Beyond marches and social media

People are taking to the streets and social media to express their outrage. And because they don’t know what else they can do to bring about change. While public pressure matters, we also need to turn this energy into practical support and sustained accountability.

If you are able to donate, support an organisation working in your community. Ask your employer, business or community organisation to contribute. And continue to put pressure on government and business to provide sustainable funding for the frontline organisations doing this work.

A small donation will not solve South Africa’s GBVF crisis. But collectively, public support can help organisations keep their doors open while we push for the much larger and sustained investment that is needed.

Better data

We also urgently need regular, accurate and publicly accessible data on GBVF. How can we begin to address a problem that we don’t fully understand? We need to know how many cases are being reported, where they are occurring, the ages and genders of survivors and victims, the type of offence, whether the perpetrator was known to the person affected, and how many applications for protection orders are being made and granted; and the reasons why they are not granted. What are the blockages in the justice system? How much of a role does poverty play? Where are systems and support failing victims?

Without reliable data, it is difficult to identify hotspots, understand patterns, direct resources or measure whether interventions are working.

As academic and journalist Nechama Brodie has argued, data allows us to understand GBVF as both a national crisis and a local problem, helping identify the provinces, metros and police stations that require particular attention.

Community-led monitoring at local level can strengthen national datasets and, triangulated with national statistics, can provide a more nuanced picture. This approach has been used to good effect in the HIV response.

The lesson from South Africa’s HIV response is clear: we cannot tackle a major public health and social crisis effectively if we do not understand its scale and patterns.

Attention to targets for GBVF

South Africa has already set targets for its GBVF response through the National Strategic Plan on GBVF. The challenge is ensuring that these targets are properly resourced, monitored and reported on, with reliable data showing whether we are making progress.

The global HIV response adopted clear targets, including UNAIDS’ 95-95-95 fast-track strategy, alongside detailed surveillance, monitoring and investment to track progress towards ending AIDS as a public health threat.

GBVF needs the same level of ambition, focus and coordination. That means being able to see, year by year, whether the response is actually reducing violence and improving safety.

The government has said that the national disaster classification will strengthen coordination and allow resources to be directed towards impactful interventions. Its 2026 plans include strengthening survivor-centred support, shelters, one-stop service centres, mobile and rural outreach and the justice response.

We don’t need another set of promises. We need to properly resource the existing strategy, collect the data required to measure progress and make the results visible. Now we need to see those commitments translated into adequately funded services and transparent reporting.

The nine women whose lives have been lost deserve more than another cycle of outrage, marches and statements.

They deserve action that prevents the next woman from becoming a statistic.

Don’t just march. Support the organisations doing the work.

If you are able to donate, consider supporting an organisation working to protect women and girls and support survivors, here are a few that NACOSA has worked with:

• Valerie House
• Botshabelo Community Care Centre
• Lifeline Vaal Triangle
• Childline
• GRIP
• Areageng
• National Shelter Movement of South Africa – supporting shelters and organisations across the country.

If you or someone you know has experienced gender-based violence

Free post-violence care is available through centres across South Africa and can include medical, emotional and legal support.
Lifeline: 0800 150 150
Childline: 116
GBV Command Centre: 0800 428 428
USSD: 1207867# (“Please Call Me”)
SMS: Text “help” to 31531 for persons with disabilities

“My goal is to turn this small hustle into sustainable community impact”  

Mpho, also known as Gold, is a young man from Mangaung in the Free State who loves working with people and finding ways to create change in his community. He runs a small business selling affordable fruits and vegetables as a way of earning an income while making fresh produce accessible to people in the area. 

His love for entrepreneurship started at the age of 18, when Mpho started selling sweets and water in his community. It was a small business, but it taught him valuable lessons about working hard, serving people and being consistent. It also gave him an early understanding of what it takes to earn a living from your own efforts. 

As Mpho continued looking for ways to grow and support his community, he joined the SEF programme through Men Up Ndoda community organisation as a Community Mobilizer. The programme gave him an opportunity to build his skills and gain more experience working with people through community work. The support he received also helped him see his business in a different way. He now sees it as a source of income and as something that could also benefit people in his community.  

“I chose the fruit and vegetable market because, for me, it is about more than just selling. It is also about feeding families and meeting a need in my community,” Mpho says.  

Looking ahead, Mpho hopes to grow his small business into a larger fruit and vegetable market. He also wants to create opportunities for young people in his community. To take this next step, Mpho is currently seeking funding to help him set up a market shelter and grow his business. 

“My vision is to build something long lasting and create opportunities for young people in my community.” Mpho concludes 

“As a single mother, being able to support my children and run a business that provides me with an income is very important to me“

Buhle Ngidi is a single mother who is working hard to support her family. She is a hairdresser who is running her own salon, which gives her financial independence and helps her provide for her children. 

Buhle tried other ways of earning an income, but they were not successful. She then decided to use her hairdressing skills to start her own business by renting a small wooden shelter where she works and provides hairdressing services to people in Amsterdam, Mpumalanga. At the beginning, she did not have enough money to buy all the equipment and products she needed for her business. But she believed in her dream and, as the person supporting her family, she knew she had to keep trying. 

When she heard about the Social Employment Fund Programme, she reached out to the local implementing organisation, Yakha Ikusasa Manje Health Development Center, where she participated as a community mobiliser and earned monthly stipends, which helped her buy the necessary products and equipment for her hairdressing business.

“The support from SEF has helped me to keep the business functioning and has reduced the financial pressure I experienced as a small business owner and a mother” Buhle says.

Through her work as a community mobiliser, she was able to serve her community while earning an income that helped her invest in her business and improve her livelihood. One of the things Buhle values most about the SEF programme is how it contributed to her business and helped her become less dependent on others for its success. The support from the programme has helped Buhle continue working towards her goal of making the salon sustainable and profitable.

Despite her achievements, she still faces several challenges that inspire her to work even harder toward her goal of building a successful salon. During the rainy season, working becomes challenging because the wooden shelter she rents lacks proper protection from the rain. This limits her ability to offer services and discourages customers from visiting her salon. 

Buhle has a clear dream of owning a hair salon in a sturdy, safe, and welcoming building where her customers feel comfortable. She hopes to grow her salon into a successful and lasting business that will provide a better future for her and her family.  

“My salon lets me earn money while building something of my own. I believe that with the right tools, equipment, and a better workspace, my business can really grow,” she says. 

Book your hair appointment via WhatsApp: 079 078 0067 

The summit comes at a time when people who use drugs, particularly women, continue to experience stigma, discrimination, violence and barriers to accessing health and social services. Women who use drugs can face additional challenges linked to gender inequality, including increased vulnerability to gender-based violence and limited access to safe, confidential and non-judgemental services. HIV prevalence among women who inject drugs and sex workers is estimated to be several times higher than among women in the general population. This reflects the ongoing impact of violence, economic vulnerability and barriers to consistent HIV prevention and treatment services.

The summit will provide a platform to discuss how harm reduction services can better respond to the needs of women who use drugs and other vulnerable populations, including men who have sex with men, transgender people, people in prisons, young people and people with disabilities. Harm reduction is a practical health approach that focuses on lowering the negative health, social, and legal risks associated with behaviors like substance use, without requiring a person to stop. It promotes the non-judgemental and non-coercive provision of services and resources to people who use drugs or engage in high risk activities and the communities in which they live, helping to reduce the potential harm.

“We want to listen to people who use drugs and work together to find practical ways to improve access to safe, evidence-informed and rights-based services,” says Yolaan Andrews, Deputy Grant Manager at NACOSA.

Discussions will focus on five key themes: harm reduction as a public health and human rights imperative; women, gender and harm reduction; young people and harm reduction; integrated service delivery and health systems strengthening; and policy reform, advocacy and accountability.

Participants will consider priorities for strengthening harm reduction within HIV, TB, hepatitis, mental health and other health and social services. The summit will also focus on gender responsive and youth friendly services, disability inclusion, community-led monitoring, policy and legal barriers, and opportunities to strengthen community participation in decision making.

A key outcome of the summit will be the Amaqhawekazi Harm Reduction Summit Communiqué 2026. The stakeholder-driven communiqué will present shared priorities, commitments and recommendations for strengthening and scaling up comprehensive harm reduction services in South Africa. It will also provide a coordinated roadmap for the grassroots action and will highlight opportunities for collaboration between government, civil society, communities and development partners.

“We know that real change requires more than good policy. It also requires services that respond to the realities people face in their everyday lives. This summit is an opportunity to look at what is working, where the gaps remain and what we can do differently to strengthen harm reduction in South Africa.” Says Yolaan Andrews

“A lot of people were selling Kotas, and no one was selling sandwiches; I saw an opportunity to offer something different that would benefit both customers and me.”

Tirolo Boikanyo is a 25-year-old young entrepreneur from Boitekong Extension 2 in Rustenburg who had a dream of owning his own kitchen and selling sandwiches within his community. But Tirolo didn’t just dream, he acted, turning his vision into a growing business and an opportunity to serve his community while creating a sustainable source of income for himself.

Tirolo had no income after finishing high school and he moved from his village to Rustenburg to look for jobs. Things did not work out as plannedso he decided to create his own opportunity and started a small business with his aunt. The business was a tuck shop at first, but Tirolo quickly recognised the potential for big, generously filled sandwiches. He saw a need and decided to fill it by bringing Dagwood sandwiches to his community and started Boikanyo’s Kitchen.

Besides selling his Dagwoods , he also got an opportunity to serve his community, becoming a community mobiliser for the Social Employment Fund programme at Teach-lead Mentor Foundation. During his participation in the programme, he was connected to Pronet, where he was given further entrepreneurship training, and more doors opened for him. The training has helped him gain knowledge and skills to feel more confident in running and growing his business. The Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda), an agency of the Department of Small Business Development that provides non-financial support to small enterprises and cooperatives was also brought in to talk about funding options that could take his kitchen business to the next level.

“I feel grateful, motivated and inspired by the support I received; the programme has shown me that my small business has a potential and that I could build something bigger if I remain committed and make use of the offered opportunities.” He says.

Tirolo’s biggest goal is to grow his business from working at home to having a bigger space of his own and eventually becoming one of the people who help create employment opportunities in his community. He also sees himself working with bigger companies and catering for major events.

The support he received at home, in his community, and through the SEF programme helped make these ambitions feel possible. What started as a way to earn an income has grown into a journey of creating opportunities. After facing unemployment, he saw a need in his community, created an opportunity for himself, and is now working to grow his business and create opportunities for others.

“I have not forgotten where I come from, and I want my success to inspire others in my community to believe in themselves, identify opportunities and take the first step towards building something of their own.” Concludes Tirelo.

Place your Dagwood order with Boikanyo’s Kitchen on Facebook

Deadline for submission of proposals is 13:00 pm (SAST) on 04 September 2026

QUESTIONS

Questions can be addressed by email only to Queries@nacosa.org.za  with the reference in the subject line. Questions may be submitted on or before 27 August 2026

TERMS OF REFERANCE

ANNEXTURE 1: BIDDING FORM – PROCUREMENT OF LAPTOPS

GLOBAL FUND SUPPLIER CODE OF CONDUCT

In South Africa, the country that sadly bears the moniker of the rape and femicide capital of the world, the work of creating safe spaces for victims and survivors of gender-based violence cannot be separated from our lagging struggle for freedom. That is to say, sheltering, legal services and psychosocial support are part of a broader freedom project: one that insists that women, children, LGBTQIA+ people, migrants, people with disabilities and all those made vulnerable by intersecting forms of oppression have a right to live without fear.

As people who live in a multi-layered society, we can agree that gender-based violence (GBV) is not an isolated social problem; but rather, one that is borne of interconnected experiences of the violence of colonialism, the dispossession that apartheid brought, and the brutality of a white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy that coldly polices Black women’s bodies, our choices and ultimately – our survival.

The Networking HIV and AIDS Community of Southern Africa (NACOSA) recently hosted a webinar speaking to some of these issues, grappling with them together with partners from A Re Ageng Social Services, as well as the National Shelter Movement of South Africa. Following the funding cuts across civil society organisations in South Africa in early 2025, it has become clear that safe spaces are necessary interventions that stand in the gap where families, communities, institutions and the state have too often failed those affected by GBV. Over and above the safety of having a protected bed and nourishing meals, shelters and services addressing GBV offer reprieve and refuge. To speak about GBV, therefore, is to understand matters beyond statistics; but rather to centre victims and survivors, recognising that they too are worthy of dignity and care, without taking away their autonomy.

The National Strategic Plan (NSP) on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide 2020–2030 aligns the law and its policies with practices. It is premised on accountability, prevention, justice, response, economic power, and research, confirming that GBV cannot be solved by one sector alone. Vuyokazi Yokwe of NACOSA asserts that “Policy must be fit for purpose, and justice reform must be one of the pillars of this work. Investigative processes and evidence collection must be strengthened, because this oversight is important in a survivor-centred response.”

While the Constitution acts as the supreme law of the land, international and regional frameworks like the Maputo Protocol ensure a strong legislative foundation for human rights and survivor-centred responses to GBV. For organisations working to foster safe spaces , this means strengthening referral pathways and building trusted relationships across sectors.

Civil society and gender activists have long carried this work, often before policy caught up with lived reality. This has also meant respecting the choices that victims and survivors make in their quest for justice. Feminist movements, shelter networks, community-based organisations, legal advocates, social workers, and other psychosocial service providers have helped push GBV and femicide into the national agenda, from community mobilisation, to the 2018 Presidential Summit and eventually the development of the NSP. Just this week, the Presidency has also announced the appointment of members of the National Council for GBV. These strides matter because they show that collective agitation has and can continue to yield much.

Be that as it may, we must be honest about the harsh conditions under which safe spaces continue to operate. In addition to the loss of funding articulated earlier, other factors at play jeopardise the quality and efficacy of these spaces, such as misalignment between state departments which results in fragmented services. Survivors may gather the resources and courage to leave violent homes, only to face secondary vulnerabilities, such as insecure housing, hostile police processes, inaccessible courts, or limited mental health care. A survivor-centred response must therefore go beyond emergency protection. For us to truly experience what rehabilitative and restorative processes look like, we must begin to see adequate physical and mental healthcare, legal assistance, child protection, documentation support, skills development, income opportunities, and long-term reintegration that does not return survivors to the very roots of their oppression.

Collaboration remains essential, but it must be collaboration with accountability. Sharon Kouta, representing the National Shelter Movement of South Africa, spoke to the importance of partnerships and networking across sectors in building the capacity of this movement, highlighting the development of a groundbreaking national 24-hour toll-free shelter helpline, which is available on 0800 001 005.

Government, donors, civil society, communities and the private sector all have roles to play, yet partnerships must not romanticise the labour of those closest to the crisis. Many safe space workers are themselves Black women carrying the emotional, administrative and political burden of survival work. A Black feminist approach asks us to resource this labour properly, trust community knowledge, protect frontline workers, and ensure that policy implementation is shaped by those who understand survivors’ realities most intimately. This includes the dedicated staff and boards of the National Shelter Movement of South Africa, NACOSA, A Re Ageng Social Services, partners, donors, government representatives and participants who continue to strengthen protection, care and justice for survivors.

Safety cannot remain a privilege. Justice reserved only for some is justice delayed, and in many instances, denied. Healing and rebuilding cannot be seen as the work of victims and survivors of GBV alone. Our collective task is to build communities that embody the ethos of the NSP and the long history of resistance against GBV in South Africa. We gallantly continue this work because dignity, freedom and equality must be lived in our lifetime.

Deadline for submission of proposals is 13:00 pm (SAST) on 17 August 2026.

QUESTIONS

Questions can be addressed by email only to Queries@nacosa.org.za  with the reference in the subject line. Questions may be submitted by 5 August 2026.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

ANNEX 1 BIDDING FORM

ANNEX 2 PRICING SCHEDULE

CODE OF CONDUCT FOR SUPPLIERS

Decriminalisation is another crucial step towards a more humane and effective drug policy – accompanied by support for social reintegration. We need to start treating the person, not punishing the drug use disorder.”
– Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights