Women’s Groups Push for National Action as South Africa Confronts Intense GBV Crisis

South Africa is bracing for a sweeping nationwide protest on Friday as women’s rights organizations intensify pressure on the government to declare gender-based violence a national disaster. The call comes amid rising alarm over the scale of violence endured by women and girls, and growing frustration that official responses have fallen far short of what the moment demands. The movement, which began with a surge of online activism, has rapidly transformed into what organizers describe as a national “shutdown”. From Johannesburg to remote townships, women are being urged to stay away from workplaces and schools, and symbolically withdraw from the economy for a day. At midday, participants will lie still for 15 minutes in memory of those killed. Across social media, a wash of purple profile photos, scripted in digital solidarity by celebrities, international supporters and ordinary South Africans, has signaled a public mood that is both sombre and defiant. Purple, long linked with anti-GBV advocacy, has become the movement’s rallying shade. Behind the symbolic colours sits a grim reality. South Africa continues to record some of the world’s highest rates of violence against women. UN Women estimates that the country’s femicide rate is roughly five times the global average. Local crime data paints an equally bleak picture: between January and March alone, authorities documented more than a thousand rapes and the murder of 137 women. Friday’s protest, organized under the banner 'G20 Women’s Shutdown' by Advocacy Group Women for Change, is scheduled just ahead of the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, which the organizers say is intentional. An online petition demanding tougher state intervention has already crossed one million signatures. Yet the National Disaster Management Center has dismissed calls to declare GBV a national disaster, arguing that the crisis does not meet its legal thresholds. President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking at the G20 Social Summit on Thursday, reiterated that the government had already classified gender-based violence and femicide as a national crisis in 2019. Activists counter that this designation has not translated into meaningful change. Cameron Kasambala of Women for Change said the country has “no shortage of beautifully written laws”, but insisted that implementation remains painfully weak. “We’ve normalized violence in our social fabric,” she said, stressing that decisive government action would reshape public attitudes and behavior. The intensity of public feeling is evident in the personal stories fueling the movement. A university professor from the Free State, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, said she took leave to travel to Johannesburg for the protest. Everyday activities like jogging, she noted, had become tinged with anxiety. Even so, not all women have been able to join the shutdown. Some employees say they were discouraged by their companies from participating, warning that absence could attract disciplinary consequences. For many, the sense of institutional failure has pushed them to seek their own means of protection. Among them is Girls on Fire, a women-led firearms training initiative founded by Lynette Oxeley. She emphasizes that guns are always a last resort, but said the programmer aims to help women reclaim confidence, especially those who have survived violence. One survivor, Prudence, joined after a traumatic 2022 attack. Her attempt to seek justice faltered when key forensic evidence went missing. “It isn’t just a police problem,” she said quietly. “It is a national problem.” Oxeley urges participants not to accept silence as their inheritance. “Even if you do not win the fight,” she said, “you are fighting back.” As the country awaits Friday’s shutdown, the mood is a mix of anger, fear and fragile hope. On the streets and online, the message from South African women has grown unmistakably clear, agitating that the crisis can no longer be met with cautious rhetoric. The demand embedded in purple is for action that matches the scale of the emergency

| 2025-11-21 16:27:56