A Year of Change: South Africans Rise Together Against Gender-Based Violence

Author: Alexa Marchetti 

 2025 marked a landmark year in the fight against gender-based violence  

At 12:00 p.m. on November 21, 2025, thousands of protesters lay on the ground for 15 minutes in honour of the 15 women killed in South Africa due to gender-based violence. This action, known as the G20 Women’s Shutdown, prompted South Africa’s National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) to classify gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) as a national disaster.

Photo: UN Women/Maphuti Mahlaba

The movement was sparked by an announcement from the NGO Women For Change, which called for a national G20 Women’s Shutdown on the day before the G20 Summit. By leveraging this international platform, the organization aimed to draw global attention to South Africa’s ongoing crisis.

In South Africa, women and girls experience gender-based violence at nearly five times the global average, according to UN Women. The First South African National Gender-Based Violence Study, released in 2024 and co-supported by UN Women, revealed that more than one in two women (35.8 per cent of South African women) have experienced physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime.

Although police action has been taken in response to these cases, the conviction rate remains at only 12 per cent, meaning that approximately 88 per cent of cases go unresolved.

Women for Change: Call for Action 

In early 2025, Women For Change made a decisive move by launching a petition calling on the President to declare Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) a national disaster. This strategy was deliberate. As Women for Change such a declaration would create urgency, unlock emergency mechanisms, and put an end to the cycle of delays and empty promises. Most importantly, it would provide a concrete basis on which to hold the President and the entire government accountable should they fail to act once again.

Despite sustained efforts by advocacy groups to organize meetings and send formal communications, government responses remained slow and dismissive. It was at this point that Women For Change chose to escalate its actions. The organization announced a national G20 Women’s Shutdown, urging 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 to demonstrate the economic and social impact of their absence.”

On November 21, South Africans answered this call. Women, men, and children across the country lay on the ground for 15 minutes in protest of the 15 women killed every day as a result of gender-based violence. During those 15 minutes, the names of the women lost were read aloud. On that day, grief was made visible.

What will happen now? 

Responding to the outcry amplified by over one million petition signatures, the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) invoked the Disaster Management Act to classify gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) as a national disaster. This declaration enables faster interdepartmental coordination, accelerated resource allocation, and the implementation of emergency measures that would not otherwise be possible.

Accordingly, classifying GBVF as a national disaster establishes public accountability and sets clear expectations for addressing the crisis at its core.  

“A national disaster demands national responsibility.”, declares Curol Rmapahsphoa, President of the Republic of South Africa.

Gender-based violence (GBV) is not an episodic or isolated phenomenon but a systemic issue deeply embedded in the social fabric. As Professor Aradhana Ramnund-Mansingh, Manager of the School of Business at Mancosa, states in IOL News, GBV is produced and sustained through processes of “socialization, economic inequality, entrenched power imbalances, and cultural norms that normalize male dominance while expecting female endurance.”

In response, the government has emphasized the necessity of involving both women and men in efforts to address GBV, calling for a concerted and sustained nationwide programme of dialogue with men and boys to critically examine the drivers of this pandemic and identify the measures required to end it. As articulated by the President, “We must engage honestly about the toxic masculinity, cultural norms, peer pressure, social dynamics, and socialization that are turning men and boys into abusers of women and children.”

National Strategic Plan on GBVF (2020–2030), a roadmap to create a GBVF-free society, "must move from paper to practice."

The South African government said that with GBVF being declared a national disaster, its National Strategic Plan on GBVF (2020–2030), a roadmap to create a GBVF-free society, "must move from paper to practice."In this context, Women For Change has announced that it will closely monitor the implementation of the national disaster declaration to ensure that meaningful measures are taken. The organization has also committed to launching the Survivor Support Line, which will strengthen access to support, information, and referrals for survivors and families affected by gender-based violence and femicide. Alongside this initiative, Women For Change will continue to deliver impactful campaigns and projects that centre survivors and demand accountability.

These efforts reflect a commitment to making 2026 a year in which silence is met with response and action.