When the national GBV crisis comes close to home
Monday, 21 September 2026
Ishmael Mabena | 19 Sep 2026
Ishmael MabenaIshmael Mabena
Gender-based violence (GBV) can sometimes feel like a crisis that belongs on somebody else’s doorstep, and then suddenly one finds oneself in a place where the numbers do not match the outcry, so we assume it cannot be as bad here as in other parts. But, as applies everywhere else in the country, the Overberg is no less immune to the effects of this national scourge.
In that respect the region has every reason to be petrified.
The headlines come from Johannesburg, Cape Town, Parliament or the national crime statistics, one prefers to believe. The National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide says SAPS recorded 50 511 GBVF cases in the first quarter of the 2026-’27 financial year.
In all, there were 30 736 arrests or referrals to the National Prosecuting Authority. The Human Sciences Research Council’s national prevalence study has also estimated that millions of South African women have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.
However, statistics tell us only about the cases that enter the system.
The hornet’s nest of this stark reality was stirred once again this past week as South Africa learned of the discovery of yet another woman’s body in Kempton Park on Johannesburg’s eastern outskirts, in the Ekurhuleni municipal area, the ninth since July.
Police have established a multidisciplinary team to investigate the deaths, but have cautioned against assuming that the cases are connected before investigations have established that.
For communities in the Overberg gender-based violence (GBV) is far more than an abstract national problem. It has its own ongoing cases; on 21 September, for instance, the trial of a 42-year-old Hermanus businessman accused of rape, sexual grooming and exposing a minor to pornography was scheduled to begin in the Hermanus Magistrates’ Court. He has remained in custody since his arrest in June 2025, with bail refused.
In Caledon Lee-Wayne Koert faces rape and murder charges following the death of a girlfriend, Jenine Hopley. Her body was found at Caledon Cemetery in May and his case was postponed while investigations continued.
And these are not isolated cases moving through Overberg courts; Earlier this year Hermanus Times reported on several unrelated GBV cases involving allegations of rape, sexual assault, child sexual exploitation and murder.
It is being dealt with in its courts, its police officers, its schools, its hospitals.
The Kempton Park cases have once again forced the country to confront a question that has been asked repeatedly; how many more women and children must experience violence before GBV is treated not simply as a recurring news story, but as a crisis requiring sustained prevention, intervention and support?
What happens after someone decides to seek help?
One side of these cases in particular that receives considerably less attention is recourse to help and the level of responsiveness when relevant authorities are approached for help.
The Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness has confirmed Hermanus Hospital treats sexual-assault survivors under the age of 18. This was in correspondence with Hermanus Times.
Additionally, it has a dedicated examination room in its Emergency Centre and follows national policies governing the management of sexual offences.
According to the department survivors can receive clinical assessment and treatment, forensic examination and evidence collection, medico-legal documentation, HIV prevention, STI management, pregnancy prevention, psycho-social support and referral for ongoing care.
Where health-care workers identify concerns about possible statutory rape or other sexual offences involving minors cases are reported to designated child-protection organisations and the police’s Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit.
That is important because the hospital may be one of the first places where an allegation of sexual violence becomes visible to the formal system.
Yet even there the department points to a problem that no crime statistic can fully capture.
Survivors may be afraid of their perpetrators
They may fear being judged or not believed. They may experience shame or guilt. They may depend financially on the person abusing them. Some may simply not know where to go for help.
And children can be particularly vulnerable.
In August a 16-year-old in Malmesbury was arrested in an investigation linked by police to the international online network known as “764”.
Police said the investigation involved alleged possession, accessing, facilitation and downloading of child sex-abuse material.
The teenager subsequently appeared in court facing additional charges, including sexual assault. The case remained before the courts.
The case is a reminder that sexual violence is no longer confined to physical spaces. Children can be groomed, coerced and exploited online, sometimes by people they have never met in person.
Conversations matter now more than ever
For parents in Hermanus and the wider Overberg the Malmesbury teen case should make the conversation about GBV broader than simply telling young people to avoid dangerous places.
It must include conversations about phones, social media, coercion, online grooming, sexual images and what children should do when someone makes them uncomfortable or threatens them. It must also include knowing where help is available.
South Africa’s Thuthuzela Care Centre model was designed to provide survivors with coordinated medical, psychosocial, police and prosecutorial assistance.
Government information on the centres, including their whereabouts, is available through the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
Hermanus Hospital’s response also makes it clear a survivor does not simply walk into a hospital and receive a medical examination. There is a wider system of care, evidence collection, reporting and support around that person.
The challenge is ensuring people know the system exists and trust it enough to use it.
In the Overberg the question should be about the many GBV cases reported, but also about the cases that go unreported, and why.
How many people never reach the hospital? How many never report to police? How many never get the opportunity to enter the support system at all?
Hermanus Times published an article on the Overberg’s most prominent cases of GBV and child sexual exploitation. Then community members reached out to share that perhaps those cases that are just a drop in an ocean, a massive one the region is drowning in.
This realisation should precisely be when the GBV crisis becomes seen as a local one.
Behind every statistic is a person who has to decide whether to speak, whether to seek help and whether they believe the system will listen.
And for a community such as Hermanus tackling GBV has to begin long before the next case reaches the media’s headlines.