After the national disaster declaration, women continue to pay the price - IOL
Amid crisis when promises ring hollow, do the lost lives of women compel a nation to awaken and act?
When President Cyril Ramaphosa declared gender-based violence and femicide a national disaster on 20 November 2025, it was hailed as a historic moment.
The declaration, reaffirmed in 2026 by government departments, unlocked the Disaster Management Act as a framework for coordinated national response. For many women, activists, and practitioners in law, this was a long-overdue recognition of the scale of violence that has scarred our country.
Yet recognition is only the beginning. The true test lies in implementation, and it is here that the state is failing women.
To understand the weight of this declaration, one must appreciate what the Disaster Management Act provides. Once a matter is classified as a national disaster, the state is legally obliged to mobilise resources, establish coordination structures, and implement urgent measures to prevent further harm. It is not symbolic.
It creates legitimate expectations that government will act with the same urgency as it would in a flood, a pandemic, or a fire. Citizens are entitled to expect visible escalation, rapid deployment of resources, and accountability mechanisms. Anything less undermines the very purpose of the Act.
Yet, despite this framework, the lived reality remains unchanged. In Kempton Park, a pattern of killings was evident long before Elizabeth Moselakgomo's tragic death. Why did it take three or four bodies before escalation? Why, as of this week, do we now count nine women's bodies in Ekurhuleni, the latest ones left by the roadside in KwaThema, Tembisa, and another near Boksburg?
These are not isolated incidents. They are part of a chilling continuum of violence against women, and the state's sluggish response is indefensible.
The gap between policy and lived experience is stark. We have the legal recognition, we have the framework, we have the declaration. What we do not have is the efficiency, the resources, or the urgency. The Disaster Management Act was designed to prevent precisely this kind of complacency. It demands coordination across police, health, social development, and justice. It requires monitoring, reporting, and intervention. Yet women are still being targeted, still being killed, while authorities appear paralysed.
As a legal practitioner, I cannot ignore the principle of legitimate expectation. When government declares a national disaster, it creates a binding promise to its citizens. Women and children in South Africa are entitled to expect protection, swift action, and systemic change. The failure to deliver is not only a moral betrayal, it is a legal one.
Under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, the failure to act timeously and satisfactorily may well be reviewable. The declaration of a disaster is not a political gesture. It is an administrative act that triggers statutory duties. When those duties are ignored, the public is entitled to ask whether the inaction is unlawful. The courts have long recognised that administrative action includes failures to take decisions where there is a duty to act. In this context, the duty is clear. The expectation is legitimate. The delay is indefensible.
Elizabeth Moselakgomo's story is not just about one woman. It is about a nation that has acknowledged the scale of gender-based violence yet continues to falter in its duty to act. It is about the mothers, daughters, and sisters whose lives are cut short while the machinery of state drags its feet. It is about condemning violent crimes and demanding accountability from a government that has already declared this crisis a disaster.
The time for symbolic gestures has passed. The law requires more. The people demand more. And the memory of Elizabeth, alongside the other eight women in Ekurhuleni and countless others, deserves more.
Nqolokazi Nomvalo is a legal executive within corporate South Africa and an admitted attorney of the High Court. She writes and speaks widely on systemic accountability, gender justice, and the urgent need for reform.
