In a landmark decision, South Africa has officially declared gender-based violence and femicide a national disaster, following widespread protests that swept the nation on the eve of the G20 summit in Johannesburg.
A Nation in Mourning and Resistance
Hundreds of women gathered in cities across South Africa on Friday, staging a powerful demonstration against the country's escalating gender-based violence crisis. The protests, occurring in 15 locations including Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, and Durban, saw participants dressed in black as a symbol of collective mourning and resistance.
Demonstrators staged a poignant, peaceful 15-minute silent lie-down protest, a deeply symbolic act representing the 15 lives lost daily to gender-based violence in the country. This sobering statistic underscores South Africa's position as having one of the world's highest femicide rates, which UN Women estimates is five times higher than the global average.
The Women's Shutdown Campaign
Dubbed the G20 Women's Shutdown, the event was orchestrated by the NGO Women For Change. The organisation urged women and LGBTQ+ communities to refrain from all paid and unpaid work in workplaces, universities, and homes, and to spend no money for the entire day. This economic demonstration aimed to highlight the profound social and economic impact of their absence.
A statement from the group powerfully declared, "Because until South Africa stops burying a woman every 2.5 hours, the G20 cannot speak of growth and progress." The lie-down protest was the culmination of a month-long campaign that included an online petition garnering more than a million signatures. The campaign gained significant visibility with public figures, including Grammy-award winning singer Tyla, changing their social media profiles to purple, a colour long associated with women's rights.
A Government Responds to Public Pressure
The sustained pressure yielded a significant victory. On Friday, the head of the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC), Dr Bongani Elias Sithole, announced the reclassification of gender-based violence and femicide as a national disaster.
This marked a reversal from the NDMC's previous position, which held that the issue did not meet the legal requirements of the Disaster Management Act. After a fresh evaluation of "the persistent and immediate life-safety risks posed by ongoing acts of violence", the centre concluded that the crisis now meets the necessary threshold.
The minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa, welcomed the decision, which unlocks the ability for authorities to dedicate specific resources and strengthen support systems to combat gender-based violence. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa had earlier acknowledged the crisis at a G20 sideline summit, stating, "The women of our country are crying out that they need much more focus on the issue of gender-based violence."
Women For Change celebrated the announcement on its Instagram account with a post stating "we have won" and "we have written history together. We forced the country to finally confront the truth." The group plans to convene a follow-up meeting to discuss a detailed action plan and timeline for the government's response.
