Research one-pagers
Each one-pager is designed to be shareable with a policymaker, journalist, or funder in under five minutes. Facts first, sources at the bottom.
01
Justice & Forensics · Pillar 3
The Forensic DNA Backlog
232,697 cases overdue. 1.5% processed on time. A law that is being broken every day.
232,697
DNA entries overdue
1.5%
Processed within 30-day legal deadline
78.3%
Of all cases on hand are overdue
7,182
GBV cases prioritised in 2025/26 (down 64.9% from 2022/23 peak)
- Section 15Q of the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Act 37 of 2013 requires DNA profiles to be loaded onto the National Forensic DNA Database within 30 days of receipt. The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) achieved this for 3,471 of 238,707 profiles in 2025/26. That is 1.5% compliance.
- The number of entries exceeding prescribed timelines grew by 32.3% in one year, from 175,500 (Q4 2024/25) to 232,697 (Q4 2025/26). The backlog is accelerating, not resolving.
- The Reference Index HQ Sample Submission Centre holds 165,828 samples in safe storage, the single largest bottleneck in the system.
- GBV and femicide cases prioritised for DNA fast-tracking fell from a peak of 20,492 in 2022/23 to 7,182 in 2025/26, a 64.9% decline that erases three years of progress.
- The DNA Board notes: the 78.3% overdue figure is nearly four times the maximum 20% threshold set in the Annual Operational Plan. This is not an exception. It is the structural state of the system.
So what?
Every overdue DNA case is a survivor waiting for justice. In sexual offence and femicide prosecutions, forensic DNA evidence is often the difference between conviction and acquittal. When profiles are not processed, cases are prosecuted without the strongest available evidence, or not prosecuted at all. The backlog is not an administrative failure. It is a justice failure.
Source: DNA Board Annual Report 2025/26 (National Forensic Oversight and Ethics Board, published 29 September 2026) · Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Act 37 of 2013
02
Police Infrastructure · Pillar 3
The Victim Friendly Room Crisis
The law requires a private, dedicated room at every police station. Hundreds do not have one that works.
347
VFRs non-functional or absent
343
Stations with unknown VFR status
1,149
Total police stations in South Africa
28 Nov
Presidential deadline for VFR audit (2026)
- National Instruction 3 of 2008 and the Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998 require every police station to have a dedicated, equipped Victim Friendly Room for survivors of sexual offences and domestic violence.
- SAPS has never published a station-level VFR compliance database. Parliamentary Question NW2834 (2025) elicited partial provincial data. The biggest finding is what SAPS did not disclose: 343 stations are listed with unknown VFR status because the data does not exist in a form that can be reported.
- In KwaZulu-Natal, the CGE found in October 2025 that multiple stations with a formal VFR listing had rooms that were locked, used for storage, or staffed only during business hours despite being a 24-hour station.
- Presidential Directive 4 (29 September 2026) requires SAPS to publish a full station-level VFR audit by 28 November 2026. As of today, no audit has been published.
- Survivors who cannot access a VFR are interviewed in open charge offices, in front of other members of the public. This is a barrier to reporting, not just a service gap.
So what?
South Africa has one of the highest rates of reported rape in the world. SAPS is the first point of contact for a survivor who chooses to report. A survivor who arrives at a station without a functional VFR is asked to disclose an intimate crime in public. This is why under-reporting persists. It is not because survivors do not want justice. It is because the system makes justice feel impossible.
Source: Parliamentary Question NW2834 (Portfolio Committee on Police, 2025) · NSP Five-Year Review, March 2026 · CGE KZN Audit, October 2025 · Presidential Directive 4 of 29 September 2026
03
Budget & Accountability · Pillar 1 & 5
The NSP Funding Gap
R14.94 billion was committed. After five years, only 40.7% has been spent. No one knows where the rest went.
R14.94bn
Committed to NSP over 10 years
40.7%
Actually spent after 5 years
0
Consolidated expenditure reports published
17
Departments responsible, no central tracker
- The NSP committed R14.94 billion over ten years across 17 government departments. After five years, only 40.7% of this allocation has been spent, according to the ISS Africa analysis of the Five-Year Review (March 2026).
- There is no published consolidated expenditure report showing which departments spent what, on which programmes, with what outcomes. Each department reports its own GBV-related spend in its own annual report, in non-standardised formats that cannot be aggregated.
- The National Council on GBVF Act 9 of 2024 was meant to create the coordination mechanism for tracking this spending. The Council has not met and has published no expenditure oversight reports.
- Prevention programmes under Pillar 2 have received the least funding relative to their indicator commitments. The National Prevention Strategy has existed since 2023 with no funded implementation plan.
- UN Women's July 2026 analysis found that gender-responsive budgeting commitments by the National Treasury have not been translated into binding expenditure instructions to line departments.
So what?
When funds are unspent, programmes do not run. Shelters are not built, counsellors are not trained, courts are not established. The 59.3% that has not been spent is not a budget surplus. It is a service gap. Without a consolidated expenditure report, it is impossible to hold any department accountable for any specific failure, which may be why that report has never been published.
Source: ISS Africa, March 2026 · NSP Five-Year Review, March 2026 · UN Women, July 2026 · National Council on GBVF Act 9 of 2024
04
Governance · Pillar 1
The Council That Has Never Met
South Africa created a National Council on GBVF in law. It has held zero formal meetings.
0
Formal Council meetings held
2024
Year the Council was established in law
0
Costed action plans published by the Council
Sept 2026
Presidential directive deadline for Council action plan
- The National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Act 9 of 2024 established a Council with an explicit mandate: publish a costed action plan with indicators and timelines, coordinate government departments, and report to Parliament.
- As of October 2026, the Council has not held a formal public meeting. It has not published an action plan. It has not submitted a report to Parliament. It has not issued a single public statement as a body.
- The Presidential Working Group on GBVF met during 2024 and 2025 but produced no binding outputs. Its work was absorbed into the Presidency's broader GBVF response planning.
- Presidential directives issued on 29 September 2026 required the Council to publish a costed action plan by 31 December 2026. This was the President directing the Council to do what the Act already required it to do two years ago.
- Without a functioning Council, there is no single accountability body for the NSP. Each department reports against its own targets in its own format. No one is responsible for the aggregate failure.
So what?
The National Council on GBVF is the cornerstone institution of the entire NSP architecture. It is the body that should be driving all the other pillars: coordinating departments, publishing expenditure reports, escalating failures to Parliament. Its absence is not a gap in the system. It is the gap that makes all the other gaps invisible. As long as the Council does not function, there is no one whose job it is to fix any of this.
Source: National Council on GBVF Act 9 of 2024 · NSP Five-Year Review, March 2026 · Presidential directives, 29 September 2026 · ISS Africa, March 2026
All figures sourced from primary government documents. No figures in this section are estimated or modelled. See the Tools section for live tracking dashboards.