Preventing GVB far less costly than responding

SOUTH Africa is living through a violence epidemic so deeply woven into daily life that many people no longer recognise its weight. 

We see the posters, the awareness campaigns, the public statements of commitment from leaders. Each year during the 16 Days of Activism, we speak of “raising our voices.” Yet for millions of women, children, families and communities, the remaining 349 days look painfully familiar.

Despite billions being spent on policing, crisis counselling, emergency medical care, shelters and public messaging, violence continues to rise. 

Gender-based violence (GBV) alone drains an estimated R28–R42 billion from the economy every year. Bullying in schools and workplaces continues to climb. Cyberbullying is increasing at twice the rate of in-person bullying. Femicide remains five times higher than the global average.

It is not that South Africa is doing nothing. It is that South Africa is doing the wrong things. We are responding — but we are not preventing.

For decades, the country has heavily relied on interventions that are visible, politically acceptable, and symbolically reassuring, such as advertising campaigns, emergency services, court processes, and post-incident disciplinary measures. 

While these responses are important—survivors depend on them, families rely on them, and institutions cannot function without them—they have one significant flaw: they only come into play after harm has already occurred.

Every day, more resources are poured into managing the consequences of violence instead of preventing it from escalating. This creates a system built on the assumption that violence is inevitable and that our role is merely to clean up the aftermath.

This is not only emotionally devastating — it is economically unsustainable.

Prevention is quieter. It is local. It is relational. It occurs long before a case number is opened or a hospital bed is occupied. Often, it manifests as something seemingly simple, like community mediation. Not mediation in a boardroom. Not a bureaucratic process. Instead, ordinary people — trained in listening, de-escalation, and restorative methods — step into conflicts early, long before they escalate into crises.

Imagine 10 trained mediators within a single community. They are neighbours, elders, youth leaders, teachers, and home-based carers — individuals who understand local dynamics and unspoken tensions. They work in teams of three, resolving disputes discreetly, respectfully, and effectively.

These mediators intervene early, at the point when harm can still be prevented. In a year, a team of mediators can handle approximately 45 cases per month, directly reaching over 1,000 people and influencing another 1,500 to 2,000 indirectly. They work to stabilise families, rebuild trust, defuse retaliation, and create environments where individuals feel heard rather than threatened.

The cost of running this entire intervention for a full year?

R150,000.

Less than the cost of one SAPS billboard campaign.

Less than one extensive GBV investigation.

Less than the economic fallout of a single violent incident.

Every conflict touches far more than two people. A domestic dispute affects children who absorb fear, neighbours who feel unsafe, relatives who intervene, workplaces that experience the spillover, and community peace that becomes fragile.

When mediators prevent escalation, they support far more than one individual — they stabilise the entire circle around that person. A community with mediators is a community with pressure valves.

A community without them is a community waiting for the next explosion.

This is not a theory. South Africa has one of the strongest global evidence bases for community mediation. During the EU-funded Justice and Restoration Programme (JARP), mediators resolved 6,318 cases, achieving:

84% successful resolution

95–97% survivor satisfaction

87–97% offender accountability

Zero retaliation in most mediated matters

88,438 indirect beneficiaries

These results were achieved in communities marked by unemployment, trauma and long-standing mistrust. Even after the programme ended, mediators continued working informally because communities valued them so deeply.

Today, Khulisa continues to see these outcomes — preventing violent retaliation in Alexandra, supporting disability-related GBV cases in Musina, stabilising teen relationships in Soweto, de-escalating school and neighbourhood conflict in Cape Town, and strengthening women’s safety networks in Rustenburg. Every mediated case is a life redirected. Every de-escalation is a tragedy avoided.

To understand the economic power of prevention, imagine one severe GBV incident that escalates into police involvement, emergency medical care and a court process.

Typical costs:

 SAPS investigation: R6,500–R12,000

Medical care: R4,000–R20,000

Court and prosecution: R15,000–R35,000

Counselling and trauma support: R3,000–R8,000

Lost productivity: R5,000–R15,000

Potential shelter placement: R2,000–R5,000

Total: R35,000–R95,000 for one case.

Now imagine a trained mediator steps in before the violence escalates. If mediation prevents even two such cases in a year, the savings exceed the total annual cost of running a 10-mediator team. In reality, mediators prevent dozens of crises each year. The return on investment is not simply high — it is staggering. South Africa cannot afford to keep responding to violence. We can only afford to start preventing it.

We already have the tools. We already have the evidence. We have thousands of mediators ready to be trained, supported and deployed. What we lack is national commitment. South Africa must stop treating violence as unavoidable. It is preventable, predictable and highly responsive to early intervention.

If we are willing to invest in what actually works, we can shift the trajectory of a country exhausted by trauma and fear. Prevention is not a dream. It is already happening — quietly and consistently — in communities where mediators walk alongside families long before a crisis erupts.

It is time to listen to what the evidence is telling us: Responding to violence is expensive. Preventing it is transformational.

Van Selm is the Managing Director & Founder Khulisa Social Solutions