Note to Editors: The following is a speech extract by Siviwe Gwarube MP, delivered today at a march led by the DA in Gugulethu against GBV.
We march here today in remembrance of the women of ‘56 who marched against an unjust apartheid government that didn’t see them as citizens worthy of protection and dignity.
69 years later, we too gather here against a different kind of injustice to demand safer communities for our women and children and a justice system that punishes the perpetrators of violence.
Today, we do not gather in silence or sorrow. We gather in strength.
I stand before you with one unwavering message:
Acting Minister Cachalia: For our women to get the justice they deserve, you must end the backlog of DNA processing which is the main reason GBV cases continue to fail.
There is currently a backlog of 140,000 cases at SAPS’s forensic laboratories.
DNA evidence in GBV and rape cases is mishandled, mismanaged, or lost altogether.
That is why the DA has called for a full forensic audit — to expose the rot, and to fix it. Because no justice system should delay justice until it dies.
Acting Minister Cachalia: You must make it that criminals know that there is no place to hide.
When survivors walk into police stations to report these crimes, they are too often met with shrugs, with delays, with disbelief — a broken system that cannot deliver justice.
The Minister steps into his role while no woman in this country is safe!
Not in Gugulethu. Not in Inanda. Not in Mitchells Plain. Not in the villages of the Eastern Cape or the streets of Mthatha. Not in the inner cities of Johannesburg. Not on the backroads of Limpopo or the townships of Gauteng.
And that is a national crisis.
The statistics are damning:
In just one quarter — the third quarter of 2024/25 — over 9,300 women were raped.
More than 13,700 were assaulted.
966 women were murdered.
Across South Africa, the daily reality for women and girls is shaped by fear, by danger, and by a deep sense of abandonment by the systems meant to protect them.
There are schoolgirls who wake up at 4:30 in the morning just to walk to school and they walk for kilometres — alone, through crime-ridden areas — just to learn.
They walk past gang hotspots, drug dealers, and unsafe taxi ranks.
There are mothers who have buried their daughters who were just trying to get an education.
Daughters who were just trying to live.
Geen ma moet ooit haar dogter begrawe nie!
This is the real story of South African women in 2025 and so today is not just a commemoration it is a call to ACTION.
To act. To protect. To change.
I take this very seriously. For people like me it is to make sure as the Minister of Basic Education that our children get the transport they need to get to school safely. And that means for Provinces and Provincial Governments to spend their money wisely so that no child is left behind!
As a Minister in the national government; I do not raise these issues to score points.
I raise them because I carry a constitutional duty — a duty to ensure that government works for the people. And where it does not work, I will say so.
In Basic Education, we are taking real steps to protect our learners, especially girls.
• We are strengthening school safety protocols.
• We are working with SAPS to secure learning environments.
• We are expanding psychosocial support for learners who are survivors of violence.
• We are building safer schools — not just with bricks and mortar, but with trained personnel and real care.
There can be no dignity without justice.
We must also acknowledge what is working.
In the DA-led Western Cape and the City of Cape Town, progress is being made:
• The LEAP programme has placed over 1,300 law enforcement officers in high-crime areas.
• CCTV networks are expanding.
• Safe Spaces are protecting vulnerable women.
• A provincial GBV strategy exists — with budget, with accountability, with partnerships.
My fellow South Africans,
Ndiyanibona. Ndiyaniva. Ndime nani.
We owe it to those who did not survive.
We owe it to the daughters we are raising.
We owe it to the country we are building.
Let this be the beginning of a new era:
The Government of National Unity must be the turning point! This GNU must deliver the safer communities we have long called for.
We will not live in fear.
We will not die in silence.
Ons sal nie stilbly nie.
Ubulungisa. Ukhuseleko. Isidima. Ngoku.