South Africa: SA’s Child Protection Pledge Needs NGO Partners to Succeed

The plan is up against dysfunction within social development departments and fraught relations with NGOs that deliver most services.

About 1 100 children were murdered in South Africa in the past financial year, according to South African Police Service (SAPS) crime statistics. And estimates prepared by detective services suggest that around 1 181 children were victims of attempted murder and 6 209 were seriously assaulted in just the last three quarters of the 2024/25 financial year.

It is clear that South Africa has a serious problem of violence against children. As the country marks national Child Protection Week, those mandated to care for its children should step up.

In November 2024, the first-ever Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children took place in Bogotá, Colombia. South Africa’s Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe joined ministers from 102 other countries in pledging an ambitious plan of action to prevent and respond to violence against children.

South Africa committed to several actions by 2027. One was to implement evidence-based parenting programmes in 52 districts to ensure safe home environments for children, and reduce child abuse and the use of corporal punishment by parents and caregivers.

Another was to implement the 2024 Basic Education Laws Amendment Act by 2027 to improve safety in the learning environment. The law strengthens the ban on corporal punishment in schools and introduces stronger penalties for those using corporal punishment.

South Africa also pledged to ensure that psycho-social services are available 24 hours a day to parents and caregivers in distress, and increase the reach of the 365 Days Child Protection Programme of Action for prevention and management of violence against children to 52 districts. It also committed to strengthening the ability of caregivers and frontline workers to reduce and prevent online violence against children.

Achieving these targets would help keep children safe and potentially decrease violence overall in South Africa.

This is critical because violence against children carries heavy costs for individuals, families and the state. A 2015 study by Save the Children South Africa and the University of Cape Town found that violence against children cost the country R238.58 billion a year, equivalent to 6% of gross domestic product. These are the most recent figures available – and annual costs will only have increased since then.

Investing in preventing and reducing violence against children is urgently needed. This will not only save costs, but help increase South Africa’s school completion rate, and reduce unemployment and dependency on social grants.

Making this pledge a reality is in the interests of all South Africans. It is strongly supported by the many civil society organisations the Social Development Department would need to work with to implement the programmes the pledge outlines.

And herein lies the most significant challenge. The department at national level and in several provinces, has treated non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the people they serve with a lack of respect and compassion, placing many lives at risk. The relationship between the department and civil society is mistrusting and fraught, and must change.

At the same time that Tolashe was presenting her plan in Bogotá, the Gauteng High Court made a third ruling forcing the province’s Social Development Department to pay NGOs that it had contracted to provide services. By that point, these NGOs had not received payment to deliver services on behalf of the state for seven months.

This is not due to a lack of finances. In the same financial year (2023/4), the Gauteng provincial department underspent its budget by half a billion rand.

The KwaZulu-Natal provincial department has not yet paid its NGO service providers for work done in the first quarter of 2025, leaving organisations unable to cover staff salaries or the costs of essentials, such as food for children.

While departmental social workers might help deliver services promised in the pledge, most are already responding to cases of serious child abuse and neglect, and supporting cases through the courts. Without NGOs, the government probably won’t be able to deliver on its pledge to prevent and reduce violence against children.

There are many positive steps the department could take, including implementing the Sector Funding Policy (SFP). This outlines why services for children are a priority, and lays the basis for multi-year funding for NGOs that provide these vital services on behalf of the state. Funding certainty would help reduce the sector’s insecurity and enable relations between the department and its service providers to be repaired.

However, SFP implementation is not included in any planning documents, and there are signs that the national department is woefully under-capacitated. One indication of this is its inability to finalise memorandums of understanding with NGOs that offer the department free technical services. Since 2020/21, the national department has not received a clean audit.

These examples go beyond isolated glitches. They show recurrent mismanagement, poor planning and a lack of basic operational competence across national and provincial Social Development departments. The minister needs to accept that the status quo is not working. Strong, capable leadership must be provided to achieve a turnaround, not least by prioritising delivery.