In November 2025, government formally declared Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) a national disaster under the Disaster Management Act — a historic acknowledgment that femicide in South Africa demands exceptional, coordinated action. Ten months later, women are still being hunted and murdered, and the systems meant to protect them remain disconnected from each other.

Since July 2026, at least eight women's bodies have been discovered in and around Kempton Park, KwaThema and greater Ekurhuleni, Gauteng. SAPS has issued a public safety warning to women, and President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for urgent action. Investigators are still working to establish whether the cases are linked — but whether one perpetrator or several are responsible, every case exposes the same failure: a state that cannot quickly turn a fingerprint, a DNA sample or a missing person's report into an identity.

This is not an isolated municipal policing failure. It is a direct consequence of a national protection framework that has not translated into safety on the ground, despite GBVF being classified as a national disaster.

The systemic failures we are petitioning against

• Disconnected identity systems: Home Affairs' National Population Register and biometric database are not properly linked to SAPS' forensic and criminal record systems, slowing the identification of suspects and of unidentified victims. Yet Home Affairs data has been linked for other purposes — including RICA SIM-card registration and state procurement and vetting checks — proving the barrier is political and administrative, not technical.

• Forensic and DNA backlogs: National forensic and DNA processing backlogs leave suspected serial and repeat offenders on the streets, allowing preventable, repeat murders to occur.

• Implementation collapse: The National Strategic Plan (NSP) on GBVF and the statutory powers of the National Council on GBVF have not translated into measurable safety for women and children.

• Uneven enforcement: Enforcement of the Domestic Violence Amendment Act remains inconsistent nationwide, leaving women unsafe even when they hold valid protection orders.

• Incomplete population data: Household and identity records are not consistently cross-checked with Home Affairs' civil registration data, making it harder to establish who is missing or unaccounted for.

Our constitutional basis

Section 12(1)(c) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, guarantees every person the right to freedom and security of the person, including the right to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources. Section 7(2) obliges the State to respect, protect, promote and fulfil that right. A criminal justice system that cannot rapidly match a fingerprint to an identity, or clear a DNA backlog, or enforce a protection order, is failing that constitutional obligation.

Our demands

• Link Home Affairs and SAPS: Formally and securely integrate Home Affairs' National Population Register and biometric (fingerprint, photograph) database with SAPS' Criminal Record Centre and forensic (AFIS) systems, enabling real-time or near-real-time identification of suspects from crime-scene evidence — extended, where lawfully justified, to Correctional Services and the National Prosecuting Authority.

• Legislate safeguards, not just access: Parliament and the Information Regulator must establish clear statutory safeguards, oversight mechanisms and audit trails for this data-sharing, in full compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), so expanded access is used strictly to investigate and prevent serious crime.

• Convene an urgent joint Portfolio Committee hearing forcing the Ministers of Police, Justice, Home Affairs and Social Development to account publicly for the failures of the national disaster response.

• Mandate a national audit of the GBVF National Strategic Plan, including an immediate, transparent review of budget allocations and operational rollout across all provinces.

• Clear the forensic and DNA backlog and deploy specialised national intelligence and psychological investigative units, permanently, to known femicide hotspots across South Africa.

• Partner Home Affairs with Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) to ensure every citizen counted as a member of a household in the census, community surveys and related enumeration processes has a legally issued identity document — or, if under the age of majority, a legally issued birth certificate — so population, household and identity records are consistent, complete and auditable across government.

• Publish a public implementation timeline, with named accountable officials and regular progress reporting to Parliament, for every commitment above.

Our call to action

Every month of delay is measured in preventable harm. We call on government to treat the integration of these systems, and the enforcement of the GBVF national disaster response, as a constitutional obligation rather than an administrative preference. We demand a public, dated commitment from the Ministers of Police, Home Affairs, Justice and Social Development within 90 days of this petition being delivered.

If you believe South African women and children deserve an efficient state that can identify a criminal as easily as it can verify a SIM card, add your name and share this petition.