Rising Violence In South African Schools Highlights Urgent Need For Stronger Safety And Support Systems

According to 2024/25 crime statistics, the first quarter alone recorded six murders, 26 attempted homicides, and 335 serious assaults in educational institutions nationwide. Three in four rape cases reported at educational premises occurred in schools, day-care centres, or special needs facilities. Learners were the victims in 90% of these cases, and in half of them, the perpetrators were fellow learners, a troubling pattern of learner-on-learner violence.

The data further shows that violence is more prevalent in secondary schools and in lower-quintile schools, where poverty and community instability often intensify risk factors. Provinces identified as national crime hotspots including KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, the Western Cape, and the Eastern Cape, also report the highest levels of school-based violence. These patterns demonstrate that school violence mirrors broader socioeconomic and community challenges.

Government has taken important steps to respond. The National School Safety Framework and the launch of the 2025 Safe Schools Protocol strengthen collaboration between the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the South African Police Service (SAPS), promoting visible policing, school safety committees, and structured reporting mechanisms. These frameworks lay a critical foundation for safer schools.

However, as the Foundation’s research underscores, enforcement alone cannot address the deeper drivers of violence, including trauma, poverty, domestic instability, substance abuse, and social pressures. Without psychosocial support and community-based interventions, policies risk remaining procedural rather than transformative.

It is within this gap that the Foundation’s Thari Programme offers a compelling, evidence-based model.

Launched in 2017, the Thari Programme is a school-based initiative providing holistic support to children in high-risk communities. Operating in eight schools in Botshabelo in the Free State, Thari places trained Child and Youth Care Workers (CYCWs) in schools to provide psychosocial support, basic counselling, and early identification of behavioural and emotional challenges.

Thari also establishes Safe Parks, structured spaces offering recreational, developmental, and therapeutic activities and facilitates multi-sectoral community forums that coordinate support between schools, families, and government departments.

An independent evaluation of the pilot programme demonstrated measurable improvements between 2017 and 2021, including improved learner behaviour, reduced gangsterism, lower dropout rates, and enhanced academic performance. The percentage of frequent and constant discipline problems declined from 25.45% in 2017 to 21.82% in 2022. Notably, 84% of respondents in the evaluation indicated that CYCWs made a moderate to significant contribution to learner safety.

By working closely with School Based Support Teams (SBSTs), Thari strengthens existing school structures and builds capacity where it is often limited. The programme complements national safety protocols by addressing their most significant gap: sustained psychosocial support.

The Foundation’s research makes a clear case: sustainable school safety requires integrated systems that combine policy enforcement with healing, resilience-building, and community engagement. Educators cannot carry the burden alone. Learners affected by trauma cannot thrive without support. And schools cannot be insulated from the realities of the communities in which they operate.

Scaling holistic models such as Thari across provinces could significantly reduce violence while improving learning outcomes, wellbeing, and educator morale. It offers a practical blueprint for embedding psychosocial care into South Africa’s broader school safety strategy.

Safe schools are not only about preventing crime; they are about nurturing dignity, stability, and opportunity. Addressing the root causes of violence rather than only its symptoms is essential to building learning environments where every child can feel secure, supported, and able to succeed.

Through evidence-driven advocacy and community-based solutions, Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation continues to advance a vision of schools as places of safety, healing, and hope.