If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 10111 for the police first. Everything else on this page can wait until you are safe.
The numbers to use
- Police emergency: 10111
- Ambulance: 10177
- Gender-Based Violence Command Centre, 24 hours: 0800 428 428
- If you have no airtime, dial *120*7867# for a please-call-me from the Command Centre
- If you are Deaf or have a disability, SMS the word help to 31531
- Women Abuse Helpline: 0800 150 150
The Command Centre is run by the Department of Social Development and staffed by social workers, not call-centre agents. It operates 24 hours a day, every day, and the call is free from any network. It can dispatch help, refer you to a shelter or a social worker, and stay on the line with you.
The *120*7867# code exists because running out of airtime is one of the most common reasons a call for help does not get made. It sends a request to the Command Centre and they call you back.
Other national helplines
These are published on the contact page of the National Prosecuting Authority, which makes them a government source rather than a directory listing:
- Childline: 0800 055 555
- National Human Trafficking Helpline: 0800 222 777
- Suicide Helpline: 0800 567 567
- SAPS Crime Stop: 0860 10111, or SMS Crime Line 32211
- Complaints about how a gender-based violence case was handled by police: 0800 333 177, or [email protected]
That last one is worth knowing before you need it. If a police station turns you away, takes no statement, or loses your docket, that is itself a complaint with a dedicated national number, and it is separate from the case you are trying to open.
What to say when you call
You do not need to have decided anything before you phone. You do not need to be ready to lay a charge, to leave, or to name what is happening to you. Say where you are and whether you are safe right now; that is enough to start with. If you can, give an address or a landmark, because a location is what turns a call into help arriving.
Going to the police
- You can report at any police station, not only the one nearest to where the incident happened
- You can apply for a protection order at your nearest magistrates court, and it costs nothing to apply
- A protection order can be applied for after hours in an urgent case; the court has an after-hours procedure
- You are entitled to make your statement in a private room and, on request, to a police officer of the same gender as you
Ask for the case number before you leave the station and write it down. Without it, following up is very difficult. A Thuthuzela Care Centre, which is a one-stop facility for survivors of sexual offences usually attached to a hospital, is often a better first stop than a police station, because the medical examination, the statement and the counselling happen in one place. The National Prosecuting Authority publishes the list of centres.
Bright Sky SA
The government GBV site publishes a free app called Bright Sky SA. It carries a short questionnaire to help you work out whether a relationship is abusive, explains the different forms abuse takes, and uses your location to list police stations, hospitals and support organisations near you.
A word of caution: an app on your phone is visible to anyone who picks up your phone. If someone monitors your device, use a public computer, a library, or a friend phone instead.
A warning about the numbers you find online
The official government GBV website lists support organisations, and its own links are not reliable: it points two entirely different organisations, Childline South Africa and Child Welfare South Africa, at the same telephone number, and it gives personal mobile numbers for two national helplines. The Childline number above comes from the National Prosecuting Authority instead, and where a number is not corroborated by a second official source it has not been reproduced here.
Get an organisation number from that organisation own website where you can. A wrong number in a crisis is not a small error.
The Department of Social Development
For a non-urgent matter such as a query about the Victim Empowerment Programme, a shelter placement or a social worker referral, the department switchboard is 012 312 7500. It also publishes provincial contact lists on its own site. Use the Command Centre rather than the switchboard for anything that is happening now.