Africa’s time is now: Mapping the true landscape of GBVF through technology and innovation

We speak about GBVF in annual addresses, campaign slogans and policy frameworks, yet the cold truth persists: there are precious lives hidden between the numbers, and we still do not know the true extent of the crisis. Until we map the GBVF landscape with clarity and precision, the country will continue fighting blind.

Richard Firth, chairman and CEO at MIP Holdings

For years, South Africa has relied on police reports, hospital admissions and court statistics to understand the scale of GBVF. These systems, vital as they are, were never designed to capture the experiences of those who stay silent out of fear, shame, or the belief that reporting will not bring change. They only reflect the cases that reach formal institutions, institutions often stretched to their limits. Meanwhile, the most revealing indicators of GBVF are the ones that rarely make it into official reporting frameworks: the WhatsApp message sent at midnight, the anonymous call from a prepaid number, the quiet plea delivered through social media.

These are the signals that policymakers never see, and as a result, decisions are made without a complete picture. Funding is allocated without full context. Prevention strategies are implemented without understanding where risk is emerging. We attempt to solve a systemic crisis with fragmented and outdated information.

This gap in visibility is precisely what Tears Foundation has spent more than a decade addressing. Since 2012, the multi-award-winning organisation has assisted hundreds of thousands of GBV-related callers nationwide. Its story began at the dining room table of its founder, Mara Glennie, who started the organisation with three students and stacks of phone books because, at the time, South Africa had no consolidated database of services for victims of rape and abuse. Tears built the first one, and in doing so opened the frontier of new GBV knowledge in the country.

Today, Tears Foundation continues to lead in innovation through Daisy, its digital case-management and analytics platform developed in partnership with MIP Holdings. Daisy is not merely a database; it is a living, real-time evidence map of GBVF in South Africa. By capturing immediate, unfiltered insights directly from survivors, the system shows the patterns, trends and needs that traditional data sources miss. Between March and August 2025 alone, Tears recorded more than 37,000 enquiries, with over 21,000 made through social media. This is not a marginal statistic, it is a profound signal that survivors are turning to digital spaces because they feel safer, less visible and more in control.

Every one of these messages represents more than a data point. It is evidence that our formal systems remain inaccessible to many who need support. It is a reminder that the country’s real GBVF landscape extends far beyond what is captured on official records. It is where data meets humanity, proving that numbers and narratives together yield insights that are impossible to ignore.

This is the kind of visibility that the National Strategic Plan on GBVF envisages under Pillar 6: real-time, disaggregated information systems that can show not only what is happening, but what works, for whom, and why. The Tears–MIP partnership demonstrates what becomes possible when social purpose is paired with technical excellence. It shows that technology companies are not peripheral players in social change; they are central architects of the systems that allow survivors’ voices to be heard in real time.

Business leaders and policymakers must confront what is at stake. Without timely and accurate GBVF data, interventions arrive too late, prevention efforts miss rising hotspots, resources are misallocated, and survivors, especially those who do not or cannot report, remain largely unseen. The economic impact of GBVF runs into billions of rands annually, affecting productivity, healthcare, justice systems, and long-term social development. The human cost is immeasurable.

If South Africa is serious about ending GBVF, it must prioritise evidence as the backbone of its response. Daisy demonstrates what is possible when compassion meets technology, and when survivor-centred design meets data-driven decision-making. Ethical, carefully curated information does not only transform service delivery; it transforms systems.

The future of GBVF response rests on our willingness to invest in visibility, not only the visibility captured through traditional formal channels, but the living evidence survivors already share through their digital behaviour, help-seeking patterns and disclosures. In a country where so many live in fear, visibility becomes justice, evidence becomes protection, and data, when used with integrity, becomes a lifeline.

South Africa cannot heal what it cannot see. It cannot change what it cannot measure. If the nation truly wants to end the GBVF crisis, it must build systems that honour every whisper, every message and every story, and transform them into the knowledge that drives meaningful, sustainable change.

About Tears Foundation

Established in 2012, Tears Foundation is an organisation providing access to crisis intervention, advocacy, counselling, and prevention education services to those impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault, and child sexual abuse. Confidential services are provided to victims at no charge and are available to all.

Since 2012, Tears Foundation received more than three-quarters of a million (750 000) calls from victims and survivors of gender-based violence, sexual assault and abuse, all using our USSD platform.

From March 2024 to February 2025, Tears Foundation had 75,245 interactions with victims on all its available platforms, including USSD, telephone, SMS, website, and social media. This equates to assisting approximately 6,250 people per month with information and access to vital services.

Their vital services include:

• Individual counselling
  
• Individual, group and couples counselling
  
• Support groups
  
• Volunteer opportunities
  
• We link victims to emergency shelters
  
• We refer victims to medical facilities for medical attention for access to:

  • Antiretrovirals (ARVs) treatment
    
  • The morning-after pill to avoid unwanted pregnancy
    
  • Antibiotics for possible Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)
    
  • Blood tests
    
  • Internal medical examinations
    
  • A J88 for court purposes

• We follow up with the police on behalf of victims who have case numbers
  
• We give them advice on how to apply for a protection order
  
• We refer child victims to child-friendly facilities
  
• We guide women and men on how to leave abusive relationships

Dial the free 24/7 helpline number: *134*7355# or toll-free 08000 83277.

Keep up to date with Tears Foundation via the following social media platforms: Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | LinkedIn | Twitter

Alternatively, send an email to az.oc.sraet@ofni.

About MIP Holdings

MIP Holdings is a leading global fintech and insurtech that provides world-class end-to-end policy administration and CRM software and technology solutions for insurers, healthcare providers, lenders, and pension administrators, as well as the business process outsourcing industry, driving automation, compliance, and efficiency.