Gauteng, W Cape lead with cases of women abused by intimate partners

THE Western Cape has the second highest number of women who have been victims of abuse at the hands of their intimate partners in just four years, according to information provided by the police in response to a parliamentary question.

Of the more than 198 000 women victims, 63 613 cases were reported in Gauteng followed by the Western Cape followed with 43 788, while KwaZulu-Natal recorded 25 560. The Eastern Cape recorded 16 472 cases, followed by the Free State with 16 546, North West with 10 732, Mpumalanga with 8794, Limpopo with 8494, and the Northern Cape with 4177.

EFF MP Asanda Matshobeni had asked how many women had experienced gender-based violence, particularly intimate partner violence, between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2024. She also requested a breakdown by race, province, and year.

In response, the Ministry of Police explained that gender-based violence is not defined as a specific offence in South African law, and as such, the SAPS uses domestic relationship-related crimes as a proxy to measure intimate partner violence.

From April 2020 to March 2024, the SAPS recorded 198 176 cases involving women who were abused by someone they had an intimate or domestic relationship. These perpetrators include boyfriends, husbands, ex-partners, baby daddies, and fiancés.

In the 2020/2021 financial year, 33 157 such cases were reported. That figure rose to 41 881 in 2021/2022. A year later, the number jumped to 60 088, and by the 2023/2024 financial year, it had reached 63 050.

The statistics also show that boyfriends are the leading perpetrators, accounting for 114 722 cases. Husbands or life partners were responsible for 32 076 incidents, while ex-boyfriends, ex-fiancés, and former partners accounted for 46 013.

Men identified as “baby daddies” were responsible for 1970 cases. Fiancés accounted for 671 cases, and ex-husbands or ex-life partners were responsible for 2724 incidents.

In response to Matshobeni’s request for a racial breakdown of the victims, the Ministry of Police said that information could not be provided.

“The variable for race is not a compulsory field when opening a case in the SAPS, hence the record for race is not published during the crime statistics release,” the reply read.

The Ministry also noted that data for the 2024/2025 financial year, which would run from April 2024 to March 2025, is not yet available, as it has not been officially released.

In his question and answer session in Parliament this week, President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed deep disappointment by what he described as Parliament’s delay in setting up the gender-based violence (GBV) council.

Cape Times