Matla A Bana

14/10/2026

WE SALUTE YOU | CHILD PROTECTION IN ACTION!

In 2022, Detective Sergeant Thabiso Kobeli of the Ficksburg SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit completed Matla A Bana’s training course.

Today, we are proud to recognise his work in helping secure justice for three children who were victims of r**e.

Working alongside the National Prosecuting Authority, Detective Sergeant Kobeli investigated a case that resulted in a businessman being sentenced to two life terms of imprisonment on 9 October 2026.

This is what makes our work meaningful. Seeing the professionals we train apply their skills in the field and contribute to protecting children and holding perpetrators accountable reinforces the importance of specialised training within the criminal justice system.

We congratulate Detective Sergeant Kobeli and the prosecution team on this outcome. We are proud to see our training graduates making a difference where it matters most.

Critical response. Professional investigation. Justice for children.

12/10/2026

CHILD SAFETY ONLINE: IS PARENTAL SUPERVISION ENOUGH?

Keeping children safe online is a shared responsibility.

Parents and caregivers play an important role in helping children navigate the digital world. But supervision alone cannot address every risk children may encounter online.

Practical steps parents and caregivers can take:
Talk regularly with children about who they interact with online, including in gaming chats and on social media.
Review privacy settings together and limit who can contact your child or see their personal information.
Teach children never to share their address, school details, passwords or live location with people they do not know and trust.
Explain that online grooming can involve gifts, attention, friendship or pressure to keep secrets.
Make it clear that children should never feel pressured to send private images. If someone threatens or blackmails them, they should tell a trusted adult immediately.
Agree on clear, age-appropriate boundaries for screen time, apps and online interactions.
Know how to block and report suspicious accounts. If something goes wrong, preserve relevant messages and account details, and seek appropriate help.
Most importantly, make sure children know they can come to you for help without fear of being blamed or automatically losing access to their devices.

But the responsibility does not end with parents.

Technology companies must build safer platforms, provide accessible reporting tools and respond effectively to abuse. Government and law enforcement must also play their part in protecting children.

Child protection in the digital world requires informed families, safer technology and accountability.

At Matla A Bana, we believe every child has the right to be safe - online and offline.

What can you do to create a safer digital world for your kids?

Please share this post - an informed child is a safe child.

09/10/2026

MATLA A BANA BUSINESS BREAKFAST

This morning, our supporters added colour to our world!

Another successful event, done and dusted!

Our Matla A Bana Business Breakfast, hosted by Jessica’s and Keller Williams, brought people together around a shared purpose: making a difference in the lives of children.

Behind every successful event is a community of people who believe in what we do. Our donors, sponsors, partners and supporters are more than just the people who stand alongside us. They are the people who help us turn our vision into action.

At Matla A Bana, we know that meaningful change takes more than one organisation. It takes partnerships, shared purpose and people who are willing to get involved.

To Jessica’s, Keller Williams and everyone who joined us this morning, supported us and helped make this event a success — thank you for being part of our world.

Together, we are creating change that matters.

This is Change in Action.

08/10/2026

MORE THAN A CERTIFICATE. - A COMMITMENT TO CHANGE

In June, detectives and prosecutors completed Module 2: Essential Skills Training with Matla A Bana - a three-day programme focused on the essential skills needed when working with victims of gender-based violence.

The training strengthens emotional intelligence, communication, self-regulation, interpersonal skills, stress management and resilience - equipping those on the frontline to better understand trauma and respond effectively to victims.

This week, we had the privilege of handing over their certificates and celebrating their achievement.

Congratulations to every detective and prosecutor who completed the programme.

To date, Matla A Bana has trained more than 6,000 police officers, strengthening the skills of those who are often the first point of contact for children and survivors of abuse.

We believe change happens when knowledge becomes action.

Want to help us reach more officers and strengthen the response to child abuse? Get involved. Partner with us. Help us take Change in Action further.

02/10/2026

FROM DEBATE TO ACTION

A recent Facebook post asked a difficult question: should we be teaching women and girls how to protect themselves from r**e, or should we be putting far more focus on preventing r**e in the first place? One response suggested that perhaps people need to look deeper - at values, character and how we teach children to treat other people.

First, an important clarification: not all men are rapists, and women can also be perpetrators of sexual violence. We would never suggest otherwise. But research in South Africa has found high levels of reported r**e perpetration among men in some study populations. One study of 1,686 men found that 27.6% reported having r**ed a woman. And in the field in which Matla A Bana works - child sexual abuse - the perpetrators we encounter are overwhelmingly male. That is the reality we see.

But how do we teach an eight-day-old baby how to protect herself from r**e? We can't.

In April 2025, Hugo Ferreira, a 37-year-old South African man from Carletonville, was sentenced to two life terms for the r**e and murder of his eight-day-old daughter, Caithlyn. She died from her injuries the following day. Shortly afterwards, Matla A Bana implemented a Child-Friendly Reporting Facility at the Carletonville FCS Unit. We saw the impact this case had on the police officers at that unit. It affected them deeply.

This is why we believe we need both prevention and response. We need to strengthen the justice system when children report abuse. We need to support survivors. We need to equip professionals. But we also need to educate - not about r**e and bullying but about what is our moral compass that drives each of us.

That is what we hope to do through our new 2027 SCHOOL EDUCATION PROGRAMME - moving beyond simply teaching children about abuse and bullying, towards building positive values, empathy, respect, responsibility, courage and how we treat one another.

Our Courage Code programme will be launched in March 2027 and if you have a heart and passion for education - then you should consider sponsoring this program. The cost of taking our school program into rural areas is approximately R 50 per child. This includes a Survivor Therapy guide for each child.

Watch this space for more updates and for more information on this program please contact us via our website.

01/10/2026

24 YEARS OF STRENGTHENING CHILD PROTECTION

For 24 years, Matla A Bana has worked as a critical-response NGO within the justice system, strengthening the response to child abuse and driving systemic change.

Together, we have achieved:
42 Child-Friendly Reporting Facilities
50,000+ Comfort Packs provided
6,000+ officers of the law trained
100,000+ children reached through education

And in 2025/26 alone:
3 facilities implemented
2,162 Comfort Packs provided
100 professionals trained
4,000 children reached

None of this would be possible without the people who support our work. To our corporate partners, donors, foundations, sponsors, volunteers, police officers, educators and supporters - thank you. Your commitment helps us strengthen the systems children depend on when they speak up about abuse.

But the work must continue. **e If you believe in creating lasting, systemic change for children, please consider supporting Matla A Bana.

Your organisation can partner with us.
You can fund a Comfort Pack.
You can support a Child-Friendly Reporting Facility.
You can help train the professionals who respond to abused children.

Together, we can strengthen the response and create safer pathways for children to speak up.

Thank you for being part of our journey — and for helping us continue it.

29/09/2026

PRESS STATEMENT

24 YEARS OF STRENGTHENING SOUTH AFRICA'S RESPONSE TO CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE — BUT WHO IS SUPPORTING THE ORGANISATIONS DOING THE WORK?

29 September 2026

Matla A Bana welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement of a renewed government response to gender-based violence and femicide, including measures aimed at strengthening investigations, addressing forensic backlogs and improving the response to victims.

For the past 24 years, Matla A Bana has been doing precisely this work on the ground - strengthening the capacity of South Africa's legal justice system to respond to children who report sexual abuse.
Since our establishment, Matla A Bana has:
• Trained more than 6,000 police officers in essential skills required when dealing with victims of sexual abuse and other vulnerable children.
• Implemented 38 child-friendly reporting facilities at SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Units, with facilities strategically prioritised in areas with high r**e reporting.
• Supplied thousands of Comfort Packs to FCS Units for children who report sexual crimes, providing practical support at an extraordinarily difficult moment in their lives.
• Provided essential equipment and resources to SAPS, including hard drives and external drives to support the work of Sexual Offences and related investigative units.
• Funded numerous resources and interventions designed to strengthen the ability of frontline professionals to respond appropriately to child victims.

Over 24 years, more than R12 million in donor funding has been invested in this work.

This has not been about creating another parallel system. It has been about strengthening the existing legal justice system and the people within it - police officers, forensic social workers, detectives and other professionals who are responsible for responding when a child reports sexual abuse.

Yet we have never been formally acknowledged by government for this work. The only government funding Matla A Bana has ever received amounts to approximately R300,000. That funding was not renewed. The reason given was that we could not provide information to the GBV Fund about how many victims the 60 detectives we had trained had subsequently assisted, including their race and gender. This was not information that Matla A Bana could legitimately obtain or provide. Our role was to train the detectives and strengthen their skills. We do not have access to confidential victim records, nor should an organisation such as ours be collecting identifying or demographic information about children who enter the criminal justice system simply to satisfy an output requirement.

The consequence, however, is very real. Like many other NGO's our existence is at risk because of a lack of sustainable funding. Across South Africa, organisations working at ground level - supporting victims, strengthening frontline services and filling critical gaps in the system - are struggling to survive. These organisations are often closest to the problem. They know the police officers. They know the communities. They know what happens when a child walks into a police station to report r**e. And they know where the system fails.

If government is serious about strengthening South Africa's response to GBV and child sexual abuse, the question must also be asked: who is supporting the organisations that have been strengthening that response for years?

Matla A Bana welcomes the President's call for action. But action cannot only mean new plans, new committees and new announcements. It must also mean recognising, supporting and sustaining the organisations already doing the work.

For 24 years, Matla A Bana has invested donor funding, expertise and resources into strengthening the response to child sexual abuse within the legal justice system. We have done so because children reporting sexual abuse deserve a system that is prepared for them.

We intend to keep doing that work. But we cannot do it without sustainable support.

The question now is not whether organisations like Matla A Bana are needed.

The question is whether South Africa is prepared to invest in keeping them alive.

ENDS
Matla A Bana is an independent South African non-profit organisation working to strengthen the response to child sexual abuse within the legal justice system.

Send a message to learn more

29/09/2026

SOME PUTTS ARE MISSED. SOME OPPORTUNITIES SHOULDN’T BE.

Join us for the Matla A Bana Golf Day and enjoy a great day on the course while helping us strengthen the response to child abuse.

Whether you're playing, sponsoring a hole or joining us for the day, your support helps us create real change for vulnerable children.

15 October 2026
Ruimsig Country Club
Sponsored by Jessica's.

Book your place and be part of a day where every swing helps a child.

Book herehttps://www.matlaabana.co.za/events.php