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South Africa declares gender violence a national disaster after protests
21st November, 2025 04:47 PM
South Africa has declared violence against women a national disaster following an online campaign culminating in countrywide protests on Friday, November 21, 2025.
Women were urged to “withdraw from the economy for one day”, and lie down for 15 minutes at 12:00 pm in honour of the 15 females who are murdered in the country every day.
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The state had refused to make the classification but changed tack after “evaluating the persistent and immediate life-safety risks posed by ongoing acts of violence”.
South Africa experiences some of the world’s highest levels of gender-based violence (GBV), with the rate at which women are killed five times higher than the global average, according to UN Women.
The National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) has classified GBV and femicide a disaster following “a thorough reassessment of previous reports and updated submissions from organs of state as well as civil organisations”, said Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa.
The NDMC had earlier said calls to make the declaration did not meet legal requirements.
Fridays “lie downs” happened in 15 locations across South Africa, including major cities such as Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.
Allies in Eswatini, Kenya and Namibia have also expressed their support for the protest and say they joined in.
The demonstrators wore black as a sign of “mourning and resistance”.
Also watch: Majority of GBV cases happen at home, says taskforce
The protest, dubbed the G20 Women’s Shutdown, has been organised by Women for Change, which has also been spearheading the online campaign that has seen many people, including celebrities, change their social media profile pictures to purple – a colour often linked to GBV awareness.
There has also been an online petition, signed by over one million people.
On Thursday, November 20, 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa told the G20 Social Summit that South Africa had “declared gender-based violence and femicide a national crisis” in 2019.
However, activists say that little has changed and they want the government to take more action.
Women for Change spokesperson Cameron Kasambala lamented the enactment of “so many beautiful acts and legislations” over the years to try and tackle the issue, which are followed by “lack of implementation and transparency” on the government’s part.
“We’ve integrated violence… into our culture [and] into our social norms,” she told the BBC.
“Once the government truly reacts to this issue, I feel like we’ll already be able to see a reaction on the ground. Because they set the precedent and the tone for how the country responds,” she said.
