Why This Matters
South Africa faces an urgent justice crisis that goes far beyond statistics. Each year, more than 26,000 murders, 43,000 assaults and 10,000 rapes are reported. For most families, the wait for answers never ends. Behind every unsolved case is not just a number but a person’s pain, a family’s trauma and a community’s fear.
The system moves slowly, like cogs grinding under impossible weight. Between 2018 and 2023, more than 76,000 murder cases were closed as unsolved. Over 1.9 million unresolved dockets clog the system. Police and prosecutors carry crushing workloads, with many detectives expected to manage 300 to 500 cases. Key forensic evidence goes missing, and more than 60% of crime scene evidence is unusable from the outset, spelling defeat before a case can even begin.
Delays pile up at every turn. The DNA testing backlog stands at more than 140,000 cases. For victims, especially survivors of gender-based violence and children, these lost years mean justice slips even further from reach. Morale breaks down, burnout rises and public trust collapses as cases disappear without resolution.
The consequences ripple outward. Persistent violence and unsolved crimes erode business confidence, drive away investors and threaten livelihoods in tourism and beyond. No community is untouched. Every day the system stalls, hope dims a little further.
Yet against these odds, there is proof that justice can win. Where cases make it to court, South Africa’s conviction rates for serious crime climb above 75%. The challenge is not whether justice works, but whether it is allowed to work for everyone. Case Forward acts in this space between possibility and reality, working to break bottlenecks, restore trust and ensure that no family must wait forever.