SA’s child protection pledge needs NGO partners to succeed

South Africa has committed to an ambitious plan of action to prevent and respond to violence against children by 2027, including implementing parenting programmes in 52 districts and strengthening school safety via the 2024 Basic Education Laws Amendment Act. However, the authors contend that these goals are jeopardized by the Social Development Department's failure to pay NGO service providers in provinces like Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, as well as a lack of operational competence and clean audits at the national level. The document emphasizes that because NGOs deliver most services, the state must implement the Sector Funding Policy and adopt a holistic approach to family services to succeed.

• South Africa faces a severe crisis of violence against children, with approximately 1,100 children murdered in the last financial year, and thousands more victims of attempted murder and serious assault in the 2024/25 period.
• As part of a pledge made at the Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children, South Africa committed to several targets by 2027: implementing evidence-based parenting programmes in 52 districts, enforcing the 2024 Basic Education Laws Amendment Act to ban corporal punishment in schools, providing 24-hour psycho-social services for caregivers, and expanding the 365 Days Child Protection Programme of Action.
• Violence against children imposes a massive economic burden on South Africa; a 2015 study estimated the annual cost at R238.58 billion, which represents 6% of the country's GDP.
• The delivery of child protection services is severely hindered by the Social Development Department's failure to pay contracted NGOs, exemplified by the Gauteng province failing to pay providers for seven months despite a budget underspend of half a billion rand, and KwaZulu-Natal failing to pay for the first quarter of 2025.
• The national Social Development Department exhibits systemic operational failure, evidenced by its inability to finalize memorandums of understanding with NGOs since 2020/21 and its failure to receive a clean audit during that same period.

APA

Gould, C., Xaba, G., Dippenaar, W., & Woodhouse, M. (2025). SA’s child protection pledge needs NGO partners to succeed. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.org/iss-today/sa-s-child-protection-pledge-needs-ngo-partners-to-succeed

Chicago

Gould, Chandré, Gugu Xaba, Wilmi Dippenaar, and Monica Woodhouse. SA’s child protection pledge needs NGO partners to succeed. Institute for Security Studies, 2025. https://issafrica.org/iss-today/sa-s-child-protection-pledge-needs-ngo-partners-to-succeed.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Gould |first1=Chandré |last2=Xaba |first2=Gugu |last3=Dippenaar |first3=Wilmi |last4=Woodhouse |first4=Monica |title=SA’s child protection pledge needs NGO partners to succeed |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=5 June 2025 |url=https://issafrica.org/iss-today/sa-s-child-protection-pledge-needs-ngo-partners-to-succeed |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{gould2025sas, author = {Gould, Chandré and Xaba, Gugu and Dippenaar, Wilmi and Woodhouse, Monica}, title = {{SA’s child protection pledge needs NGO partners to succeed}}, publisher = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2025}, month = jun, url = {https://issafrica.org/iss-today/sa-s-child-protection-pledge-needs-ngo-partners-to-succeed}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }