In South Africa, women with disabilities face heightened dangers, while children exposed to abuse need support to prevent intergenerational cycles of violence.

With gender-based violence the focus of presidential attention in South Africa, what more can the state, civil society and citizens do to prevent violence? How does the country ensure that all people are able to realise their rights to safety and dignity?

There is something to learn from a horrific case of alleged rape that took place on the night of 27 August 2026. A 43-year-old Khayelitsha woman, who is confined to a wheelchair, did everything women are told to do. She was at home – not out alone, not jogging on a quiet road, not in a taxi. She had not been drinking. She was inside her own house with her five-year-old son.

Four young men from her neighbourhood, aged 19 to 21, entered her home through a window and allegedly raped her in front of her child. The case exposes a dangerous myth. Victims cannot always outrun an attacker, fight back or barricade a door, as stay-safe advice assumes every woman can.

Women with disabilities experience a significantly higher prevalence of intimate partner violence, and of sexual violence by non-partners. They carry a heavier lifetime burden of cumulative physical, sexual, emotional and economic abuse, and face greater barriers to reporting and seeking justice.

The First South African National Gender-Based Violence Study, released by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in 2024, found that women with disabilities were roughly twice as likely to experience lifetime sexual violence from a partner (14.6%) as women without disabilities (7.2%).

Similarly, a pooled study across two sub-Saharan African countries found that women with disabilities were nearly twice as likely to experience lifetime sexual violence (19.8% versus 11.7%).

The Khayelitsha case should push the police, health and social workers, and civil society organisations to pay attention to the particular needs and vulnerabilities of people with disabilities. It should also compel the country to confront the reality that far more must be done to prevent violence.

The perpetrators of violence against women were once children. Their experiences as children and young adults shaped the men they became. This is where the country appears to have a blind spot.

Tellingly, the news report on the rape case noted that the survivor’s five-year-old son was present, yet said nothing more about this second victim or the support he would need to overcome the trauma of witnessing the assault.

Available data suggests that between 34.9-million and 38.2-million children in sub-Saharan Africa have witnessed domestic or intimate partner violence. The latter, together with violence against children, is closely linked and often co-occurs in households, creating shared risks and perpetuating violence across generations.

Witnessing violence is never passive; it is an active trauma that fractures a child’s sense of trust and safety, and disrupts emotional development. The 2024 HSRC study points to an intergenerational cycle. Women exposed to domestic violence as children were more likely to report victimisation, and men who were bullied or bullied others as children were significantly more likely to report perpetrating violence as adults.

Men with higher childhood trauma scores – measured on a scale that included witnessing violence against their mothers – were also more likely to report perpetrating physical or sexual abuse, or both. These findings point to potential links between childhood exposure to violence and gender-based violence in adulthood.

This does not mean that all boys who experience violence and trauma in childhood go on to perpetrate violence. But it strongly indicates that South Africa must pay far greater attention to ensuring that children who experience or witness violence receive the support and care they need to deal with the trauma and its consequences.

A recent systematic review of children exposed to intimate partner violence found that younger children tend to show immediate behavioural disruptions and cognitive difficulties, while older children more often experience depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. This means that exposure to violence affects a child’s development and ability to learn at school.

Taken together, this research shows that children who hear threats, witness physical assaults or live with domestic abuse are not mere bystanders. They are direct victims whose developing brains and emotional blueprints are rewired by what they experience.

Left unaddressed, this exposure may not fade with time. It can follow children into adulthood, shaping how they form relationships, regulate emotions and respond to conflict. It can impact the trajectory of their lives, affecting their health, education and work prospects. Without intervention, today’s child witnesses risk becoming tomorrow’s cycle-bearers, inheriting and repeating a legacy of trauma the country claims it wants to end.

Gender-based violence remains a systemic and intergenerational crisis. Ending it requires a well-resourced, integrated prevention strategy that recognises the heightened risks and access barriers faced by women with disabilities and children who witness violence.

Breaking the cycle of learned violence means supporting children who witness abuse. It also requires evidence-informed interventions that engage adolescent boys and young men to change the harmful masculinities that drive violence.

Only by shifting from reacting to harm to preventing it can South Africa stop violence passing from one generation to the next.

Written by Nompumelelo Zungu, Senior Research Director, Public Health, Societies and Belonging Research Division, HSRC & Chandré Gould, Senior Research Fellow, Justice and Violence Prevention, ISS