There is no dedicated grant, nor can departments deal with funding the gender-based violence and feminicide (GBVF) national disaster.
This is the view of MPs on the crisis of abuse in the country.
Usually, once a national disaster is classified, budget allocations from departments are set in place to assist recovery.
Also, several grants, whether municipal or provincial, exist to further assist the funding of a disaster as stated in the Disaster Management Act (DMA).
So, the question remains of how the classification and the 100-page National Strategic Plan (NSP) for GBVF, a roadmap to end the crisis of violence against women and children, will come into fruition.
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Money when a disaster is classified
GBVF has been classified a national disaster, not declared.
The DMA states that departments must reprioritise funding for classified disasters within their existing budgets.
If declared, the minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) would have done so. This would have unlocked the ability for the Treasury to supply its resources directly.
But “with the classification, there is [now] the responsibility for departments…to reallocate their resources,” confirmed Tshehofatso Chauke-Adonis, member of the Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities (WYPD) committee this week.
The Department of WYPD and Social Development are among those that oversee GBVF.
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Department budgets not built for disasters
Liezl van der Merwe, chairperson of the WYPD, doubts some departments can assist in reprioritising funding for the disaster.
Chauke-Adonis shared the same sentiment, complaining that reallocating WYPD funds would be strenuous.
“How [would] they have the ability to do that when they have the smallest budget out of all the departments?” she asked.
Social Development’s overall budget for the 2025-26 financial year is around R412 billion. WYPD’s sits at a R1.4 billion.
Neither accounts for funding disasters, either.
Under such conditions, departments must de-prioritise existing programs and service delivery areas to accommodate GBV disaster spending.
Anna van Zyl, member of the Cogta committee, asked what exact programs and areas would be sacrificed. But she received no clarity at a parliamentary meeting on Tuesday.
Unless the treasury integrates a specific GBV disaster budget for departments, “we have been set up for failure,” says Chauke-Adonis.
Godongwana earmarks millions for GBV in budget
24 hours later, finance minister Enoch Godongwana earmarked an additional R136m over the next three years to the WYPD department to help with the fight against gender-based violence.
“Despite the constrained fiscal environment, the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with
Disabilities will receive additional funding of R43 million in 2026/27, R45 million in 2027/28, and
R47.3 million in 2028/29 to operationalise the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and
Femicide.
“This funding aims to ensure the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on Gender-
Based Violence, particularly considering the recent classifiction of gender-based violence and
femicide as a national disaster under section 23 of the Disaster Management Act (2002).
“This allocation is in addition to the R20.9 million in 2026/27 and R21.8 million in 2027/28 provided in the
2025 Budget to support the department’s operations,” Godongwana’s budget read.
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