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WHERE ARE THE PROMISES?
FIVE YEARS LATER, SOUTH AFRICA IS STILL ASKING
South Africa has heard the promises before. Tougher bail. Stronger sentences. A justice system that would come down harder on perpetrators of rape, murder and gender-based violence. A commitment that those found guilty of the most serious offences would face life imprisonment. But in 2026, with gender-based violence and femicide still described by government as a national crisis, one question refuses to disappear: where are the promises, and how much of what was promised has actually translated into justice?
President Cyril Ramaphosa has spoken repeatedly about the need for a tougher response to violence against women and children. In 2019, amid national outrage over gender-based violence, he said the State supported opposing bail for suspects accused of rape and murder of women and children and argued that life imprisonment should mean exactly that. Then, in his Women’s Day address in August 2023, Ramaphosa pointed to changes to the law which he said would strengthen the bail regime. From September that year, police bail could no longer be granted to people charged with rape, or where the alleged victim was in a domestic relationship with the accused. Such suspects would have to approach a court for bail, while additional protections were introduced for victims in domestic relationships.
But somewhere between the political promise, the legislation and the courtroom, the public conversation has become blurred. South Africa did not introduce a blanket rule in 2023 saying that every person accused of rape or gender-based violence would automatically be denied bail. What changed was the bail process and the circumstances under which bail could be considered. Court bail remained possible, subject to the law and judicial discretion. That distinction matters, because when South Africans see an accused person walking out of court on bail, the question cannot simply be whether the President’s promise was ignored. The harder question is whether prosecutors are effectively opposing bail where appropriate, whether courts are correctly applying the strengthened provisions, whether conditions imposed on accused persons are being monitored and whether victims are genuinely being protected.
And this is where the frustration begins.
Because government has not done nothing. Laws have been amended. The criminal justice framework has been strengthened. Parliament has passed legislation aimed at improving the response to gender-based violence, while government has established new structures and strategies intended to coordinate the national response. Yet the crisis itself has not disappeared. In August 2026, government reported that SAPS had recorded more than 50,000 GBVF-related cases during the first quarter of the 2026/27 financial year, with more than 30,000 resulting in arrests or referrals to the National Prosecuting Authority.
Those numbers are more than statistics. Behind every case is a person, a family and potentially a life permanently altered. And while arrests matter, an arrest is not a conviction. A charge is not justice. A bail application is not the end of a case. The real test of the system comes much later — when investigators have gathered the evidence, when prosecutors have built the case, when witnesses have been protected, when trials are completed and when guilty people receive sentences that reflect the seriousness of their crimes.
Parliament itself continues to raise concerns about whether that chain is functioning as it should. In 2026, parliamentary committees called for stronger investigative capacity, improved prosecutorial support, better conviction rates and greater attention to limiting bail in serious cases. They also stressed the importance of clear implementation timelines so that government can actually be held accountable for what it promises.
That is an important development because it shifts the question away from simply asking whether South Africa has enough laws. Perhaps the country has reached the point where the more uncomfortable question is whether the laws already on the books are being implemented effectively.
Is the problem at the police station, where cases are first reported? Is evidence being collected properly? Are investigations being completed quickly enough? Are prosecutors receiving what they need to oppose bail and secure convictions? Are victims being adequately protected once an accused person is released? Are bail conditions being monitored? What happens when those conditions are breached? How many accused persons commit further offences while out on bail? How many cases collapse because of investigative or procedural failures? And how many victims wait years for justice?
These are not questions that can be answered with another speech.
There is also an important reality surrounding the promise of life imprisonment. Life imprisonment was never intended to mean that every person convicted of every murder, rape or GBV-related offence would automatically receive life behind bars. The law provides for life imprisonment in specified circumstances involving particularly serious offences, including certain forms of rape, while courts retain the legal authority to consider whether substantial and compelling circumstances justify a departure from prescribed minimum sentences.
And there are cases where the system does deliver. In January 2026, the National Prosecuting Authority announced that a Free State man convicted of rape had been sentenced to life imprisonment after the Reitz Regional Court found that there were no substantial and compelling circumstances to justify departing from the prescribed minimum sentence.
But one successful conviction cannot answer a national question.
South Africans want to know what happens across the system — not simply in one courtroom, but in thousands of cases moving through police stations, prosecutors’ offices and courts across the country. They want to know how many suspects charged with serious GBVF offences are granted bail, how many breach their conditions, how many disappear, how many reoffend, how many cases result in convictions and how many convictions ultimately result in life imprisonment.
They also want to know how many cases never reach that point.
Because a law in the Government Gazette does not protect a woman walking home. A tougher bail provision does not investigate a rape. A life sentence does not bring a murdered woman back to her children. And another national strategy does not automatically mean that a survivor arriving at a police station will be believed, treated with dignity, properly protected and supported by an investigation capable of standing up in court.
Government has continued to build its response. In 2026, Ramaphosa appointed members of the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, a body intended to provide strategic leadership and coordinate the country’s response. Government has also approved a GBVF Programme of Action focusing, among other things, on law enforcement, justice, survivor support and institutional accountability.
Meanwhile, the South African Law Reform Commission has been examining the country’s bail system, including issues around victims’ participation in bail proceedings, refusal of bail, lengthy pre-trial detention and the conditions attached to release.
So the picture is more complicated than simply saying that nothing changed after the President’s promises. The law did change. The institutions did change. New strategies were introduced. New structures were established.
But the violence did not stop.
And that is why, in 2026, the public is entitled to ask what happened between the promise and the outcome.
If government says the laws are tougher, show us the results.
How many bail applications were opposed? How many were granted? How many accused persons breached their conditions? How many reoffended while on bail? How many investigations were completed successfully? How many cases went to trial? How many resulted in convictions? How many offenders received life sentences? How many cases were withdrawn or struck off the roll? How many victims received protection throughout the process?
Those are the numbers that would allow South Africans to judge whether the system is actually changing.
Because perhaps the question in 2026 is no longer whether South Africa needs another promise.
Perhaps the question is much simpler — and much harder to answer:
Where is the proof that the promises we were given are working?
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