G20 leaders should prioritise child protection and the fight against gender-based violence – Centurion Social Welfare Forum
As the G20 Summit approaches, the Centurion Social Welfare Forum – a sub forum of the Centurion Community Forum – calls on G20 member states to use their diplomatic engagement with the South African government, both during the summit and in ongoing bilateral discussions, to urge decisive action against gender-based violence (GBV) and to strengthen protections for children, youth and vulnerable groups.
South Africa’s GBV crisis and the rising levels of abuse against minors demonstrate a national emergency. Yet one of the country’s most critical protection tools – the National Child Protection Register – is not up to standard, not properly maintained and in many cases not updated as required by law. This failure leaves gaps that put children and vulnerable individuals at serious risk.
The Centurion Social Welfare Forum calls on G20 governments to increase diplomatic pressure on South Africa to strengthen accountability for child protection; to support improvements to national child protection systems, including technological upgrades and international cooperation; to advocate for urgent modernisation and proper oversight of the failing National Child Protection Register; and to encourage the development of stronger prevention, monitoring and response mechanisms to address GBV and child abuse.
According to Dr Leandie Bräsler, Community Forum Coordinator, child abuse and GBV create a destructive chain reaction that begins with school absenteeism, as children exposed to violence often miss school due to fear, instability and trauma. This leads to weakened academic performance because trauma disrupts concentration, memory and emotional regulation. Poor performance reduces the likelihood of completing matric, increasing the risk of unemployment, which in turn deepens vulnerability to further violence. GBV also directly undermines economic participation, especially among young women, reinforcing a cycle where violence and unemployment feed each other. Bräsler stresses that an outdated and poorly maintained National Child Protection Register allows perpetrators to slip through the system, placing more children at risk and entrenching this cycle. Updating and maintaining the register is therefore essential to protecting children and safeguarding their educational and economic futures.
Social workers in Centurion, working closely with the Centurion Social Welfare Forum, are taking a united stance to advocate for urgent reform of the National Child Protection Register. They emphasise that the register must be accurate, complete, and consistently updated; that it must be accessible to authorised institutions for screening individuals who work with or care for children; that the government must allocate the necessary resources and oversight to ensure the register functions as a reliable national safeguard; and that the children’s court and criminal court – which convicts offenders – should also have access to the register so that once someone is convicted, the offender’s name is immediately placed on the register.
“Without an accurate and up-to-date register, communities cannot effectively protect women, children and the vulnerable from known offenders or prevent individuals with a history of abuse from entering positions of trust,” concludes Bräsler.
The Centurion Social Welfare Forum is calling on local churches, schools, businesses and community organisations to support this campaign by wearing purple on Friday 21 November or by making their social media profile pictures purple. A donation can also be made to support the social workers in Centurion by strengthening their capacity with essential resources to do fieldwork, offer prevention programmes to the community and launching campaigns alike to look after the well-being of the community.