Ilitha Labantu is not just delivering services. It is holding up a mirror to the country, and to all of us.
Walking into Ilitha Labantu’s offices in Gugulethu township today with colleagues from the UN Country Team, I was reminded again that gender-based violence (GBV) in South Africa is not merely a national crisis. It is a national wound. One that never seems to close, because the same forces that inflict it are often the ones responsible for healing it.
Inside the compound, long before any formal presentation, the truth was already waiting for us quietly, painfully, in the line outside. Women and community members queuing for a hot meal, for safety, for counselling, for some form of certainty in an environment where very little is guaranteed. These are not beneficiaries. These are survivors navigating a system that continues to fail them.
Caption: Nelson Muffuh, Head of the United Nations in South Africa visited Ilitha Labantu’s offices in Gugulethu township
A moment of reflection was also necessary here. Ilitha Labantu exists because of the vision and courage of Mma Mandisa Monakali, whose conviction that women deserve dignity, justice and full humanity still shapes the organisation’s approach today. Her clarity of purpose and refusal to accept the normalisation of violence created a space that continues to save lives and influence national thinking. Her legacy remains alive in the work, tone and integrity of the institution.
What struck me again is how much of Ilitha Labantu’s work is done by young women themselves, 80 percent of the staff, many just in their twenties and early thirties. Women who could easily be the very survivors they are supporting. Women carrying the emotional labour of a nation.
Connecting the Dots Because Violence Never Happens in Isolation
Ilitha Labantu is not a single service organisation. It is a map, dynamic, interconnected and painfully honest, of the lived reality in communities where violence is not an incident but a daily environment.
Five departments clinical psychosocial services, legal support, outreach and education, food security and the empowerment of women seeking to exit abusive relationships work together not as a programme, but as a survival ecosystem.
From counselling survivors to training SAPS officers; from engaging learners, teachers and principals; from advocating in courtrooms to delivering breakfast and lunch to the elderly and families living in extreme precarity, Ilitha Labantu stands as both a frontline responder and a systemic watchdog.
Their work exposes something we in the UN system are also grappling with. GBV is multidimensional, and our response, too often, is not.
Caption: Simnikiwe Maboee, a Senior Legal Advisor at Ilitha Labantu, committed to driving change and awareness around safe communities for women and girls.
One of the most powerful moments during our visit was when the team unfolded the maps created through their W17 network of GBV service providers mapping exercise. Side by side, they revealed a contradiction that should unsettle every policymaker in this country.
In the metro areas, service points clinics, shelters, Thuthuzela Care Centres cluster densely. In regions like the Central Karoo, an entire landscape lies bare. Entire districts without a single Thuthuzela Care Centre. Entire districts where survivors are expected to report violence with nowhere to turn immediately after as survivors search for help that technically exists, yet remains practically inaccessible due to uncoordinated efforts across departments and state entities.
Caption: Unfolding maps created through the Ilitha Labantu’s W17 network of GBV service providers mapping exercise
One of the colleagues said something that stayed with me long after the meeting ended: "Violence is not happening in a vacuum. It is happening because policies are not adhered to, because developmental failures accumulate, because families live on top of each other, because there is no prevention."
Disrupted educational pathways caused by poverty, trauma and community condition.
And the enduring legacy of Apartheid era spatial planning and inequalities, which continue to shape exposure to violence, restrict access to services, and hardwire vulnerability into certain communities.
This is why prevention is often politically unattractive. It forces us into the grey areas where development, policing, economics and social norms intersect. And yet this is where the real work must be done.
Caption: UN team and Ilitha Labantu teams discussed the challenges linked to prevention of GBV
As I told the team during our discussion, what Ilitha Labantu does connecting legal support, psychosocial care, education, food security, police training and community empowerment is exactly what we at the United Nations must hold ourselves accountable to. A coordinated, multidimensional response.
UN Women, UNFPA, UNAIDS, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP, UNODC, WHO, OHCHR, UNHCHR, ILO and IOM each bring essential strengths. Our challenge now is to further integrate them meaningfully, not through aligned and parallel efforts but through a focused, community rooted approach that mirrors what Ilitha Labantu has built.
This visit reminded me of the power of consistency, of showing up, of grounding global commitments in local lived realities.
The Work Ahead for All Stakeholders
Leaving the building, I felt humbled. Encouraged. And unsettled, as we should be.
Because the maps we saw today are not just maps of the Western Cape. They are maps of the gaps in our collective response. Maps of lives cut short. Maps of systems that work only on paper. Maps of resilience too often mistaken for acceptance.
What lies ahead must be different. Federating efforts, integrating and concentrating interventions, reinforcing coordination and pooling resources are not optional improvements. They are essential. These remain prevailing gaps in the national response to GBV and addressing them will determine whether the work ahead is transformative or merely incremental.
Ilitha Labantu is not just delivering services. It is holding up a mirror to the country, and to all of us.
The question is whether we will act on what we see.
Caption: A visit by UN team to Ilitha Labantu’s offices