The DA requested a detailed halfway progress report from President Cyril Ramaphosa regarding the 60-day gender-based violence (GBV) commitments he made to the nation a month ago.

The official correspondence follows the pledge made by Ramaphosa in response to the brutal serial murders of 12 women in Ekurhuleni.

With the 60-day deadline approaching on November 28, the opposition party is demanding transparency on whether the promised intervention plans are on track.

DA spokesperson on Women, Youth and People with Disabilities Samantha Graham-Mare emphasised that South Africans deserve to know if these promises are being kept.

“We have now reached the halfway mark on the 60-day deadline for delivery, and South Africans deserve to know whether those promises are being kept and on track. The halfway mark is not a moment for silence. It is a moment for accountability, and a shared commitment to every woman in the Republic, and survivor of GBV,” she said.

The DA requests a comprehensive audit of all unresolved murders, rapes, and serious sexual offences against women and children and a fully funded strategy to clear the forensic backlog, which currently leaves over 140 000 cases past internal timelines.

The party wants assessments targeting broken street lighting, abandoned buildings, and unsafe transit nodes that it says create hazardous environments, as well as a coordinated set of legislative reforms specifically aimed at curbing alcohol-related violence.

The urgency behind these demands is underscored by both the severe human toll and a massive economic burden, the party said.

GBV costs South Africa an estimated R35-billion every year, a figure that Graham-Mare says represents the economic damage but fails to capture the immense human devastation.

She warned that delays in implementing recovery plans for stalled cases, untested forensic samples, and a lack of municipal accountability for hazardous public spaces directly translate into lost lives.

The DA also echoed the concerns of various civil society organisations, agreeing that municipal safety audits must be made public and that clear consequences must follow any administrative failure.

The party stressed that transparency cannot be optional when the lives of women and children are at stake, urging the President to deliver a clear update well ahead of the final November deadline.