Thousands of Eastern Cape residents experience psychological abuse, with 37,000 people in the province reporting incidents ranging from insults and humiliation to threats, stalking and online harassment.
The Eastern Cape recorded the third-highest number of people experiencing psychological violence after North West and the Western Cape, according to Stats SA’s 2025/2026 Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey released on Tuesday.
Women were more likely than men to experience psychological violence, while people aged 16 to 34 were the most affected age group.
Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke said 264,000 people nationally experienced psychological violence during the year, representing 0.6% of people aged 16 and older.
“Only 11.7% of the individuals indicated they experienced psychological violence daily, while the majority (55.9%) indicated they experienced it once in a while,” Maluleke said.
“More females (43.0%) than males (41.1%) reported that the incidences of psychological violence occurred in a private home/dwelling.
“About 31% (30.7%) of individuals who experienced psychological violence reported some or all incidences to the police.”
The abuse most commonly occurred in private homes, streets, workplaces and on social media, and included name-calling, humiliating gestures, threats, stalking, impersonation and offensive messages.
For an elderly Libode woman, who cannot be named because she fears for her safety, insults have become part of life with her husband of more than 40 years.
“Whenever he comes home drunk, I know he will call me all sorts of names.
“My heart always sinks to my chest every time I know he will drink alcohol because he changes.
“Of late, he calls me a witch and that makes me fear for my life because of how society reacts when someone is called a witch.
“I fear that he might escalate and physically harm me,” the pensioner said.
She said the abuse began after her husband returned from Gauteng when he stopped working.
“This is affecting me mentally. It’s abuse and I don’t know what caused him to be like this. I want him to stop,” she said.
Veteran social worker Nomonde Stamper said psychological violence was aimed at harming a person’s emotional wellbeing and could have severe long-term effects, including depression, isolation, low self-esteem and unhealthy coping mechanisms.
“It does not leave physical marks but leaves internal wounds and causes very deep, long-lasting trauma.
“It involves threats, verbal abuse, insults, manipulation, coercion. It is all about controlling and maintaining power over another person.
“It distorts your thinking and mind, bringing confusion between right and wrong and intensifies self-doubt until you find yourself taking the blame, feeling entirely responsible for things out of your control,” Stamper said.
The Rev Xolamzi Sam, of the Xolamzi Sam Foundation, said psychological violence might be “invisible, but its wounds are real and can be a time bomb to a violent reaction”.
He warned the true figure was probably higher because many cases in villages and townships went unreported.
GBV activist Asonele Melaphi said psychological violence remained one of the most underestimated forms of gender-based violence because it did not necessarily leave visible injuries.
“I have seen how perpetrators can slowly take control of a person’s life without necessarily laying a hand on them.”
Melaphi, whose sister Ayanda died after experiencing emotional and psychological abuse, said society should stop asking victims, “Why didn’t you just leave?” and instead ask: “What did the perpetrator do to make leaving difficult, dangerous or psychologically impossible?”
“My sister’s death has taught me that we cannot wait until psychological abuse becomes physical before we take it seriously.
“We must intervene when we see the pattern, not only when we see the injury,” she said.
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