Everyday resilience in SA: The untold stories behind the statistics

2025 was a brutal teacher.

- ARMAND BAM

Over the first three quarters alone, South Africa lost on average 63 people a day to murder. At the same time, women's unemployment remains at 35.9%, compared with 31.0% for men even as labour-market statistics show modest gains later in the year. These are not distant headlines; they are households' lives cut short, dreams deferred, dignity under assault.Yet some of the loudest voices arguing over violence are fixated on rural tragedies and sensational farm murders. Those are real. They must be heard. But they are only a fraction of a far larger crisis ravaging the urban townships, informal settlements, the overlooked neighbourhoods and everyday communities. That imbalance in public attention, what gets airtime, what draws outrage, what yields policy reaction, is not harmless. It distorts our sense of urgency. It misdirects empathy. It shapes our responses to violence and inequality as selectively as those who perpetuate it.