Demanding change: Women across South Africa are stepping back from work on Friday to draw attention to
the country’s rising levels of gender-based violence. This comes as heads of state, ministers and delegations
arrive in South Africa for the G20 summit. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy
A public call at the G20 Social Summit in Ekurhuleni this week for gender-based violence and femicide to be declared a national disaster has set the tone for a national shutdown on Friday, where women across South Africa are stepping back from paid and unpaid work to draw attention to the country’s rising levels of violence.
Women and members of the LGBTQI+ community have been urged to withdraw their labour for the day, avoid all spending and join a 15-minute stillness at noon in honour of the 15 women murdered in South Africa daily.
The shutdown comes as heads of state, ministers and delegations arrive for the G20 summit in Johannesburg, which South Africa is hosting under the theme “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability”.
At the opening of the social summit on Tuesday, Deputy President Paul Mashatile described gender-based violence as one of the continent’s most severe and persistent social crises, calling for coordinated international action.
“Gender-based violence continues to be one of Africa’s most pressing and severe social issues, eroding the dignity, security and economic engagement of women and children throughout all communities,” he told delegates.
Mashatile added that the summit offered a platform to “raise awareness, enhance accountability, and coordinate effective action” and urged countries to confront barriers to gender equality with “renewed urgency, solidarity and innovation”.
Women for Change, a national women’s rights organisation founded in 2016 that documents gender-based violence cases and supports survivors, used its platform at the summit that evening to argue that the scale of violence now warrants an emergency state response. Its figures show that 5 578 women were murdered in South Africa in a year.
The South African Medical Research Council has repeatedly said that the country’s femicide rate resembles levels found in conflict settings.
Statistics South Africa reports that one in three adult women has experienced physical violence in her lifetime. The most recent police data show a 33.8% rise in femicide and levels six times the global average.
Women for Change founder Sabrina Walter told the social summit that South Africa “cannot host the world’s most powerful leaders while a woman is killed every two-and-a-half hours”.
She described the crisis as a “national emergency hiding in plain sight” and said the timing of the shutdown was intentional. “World leaders will already be here. They cannot ignore this.”
Speaking ahead of Friday’s action, Walter emphasised that the shutdown was a withdrawal, not a march.
“Our G20 Women’s Shutdown is not a rally. On 21 November, women across South Africa will withdraw from labour and from the economy,” she said.
“At noon, we will hold a 15-minute silent lie-down, a moment where the country comes to a standstill, as we lie down for each of the 15 women murdered every day.”
The campaign has gained momentum across provinces throughout the week. Purple symbols have appeared at schools, workplaces and places of worship, while survivor-support groups, student networks, women’s forums, unions and community organisers have shared meeting points and information. In towns without planned gatherings, residents established their own.
“No one wants to stand alone today,” Walter said.
Solidarity actions will take place in several countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, China, Namibia and Botswana.
“This has grown into a global wave of solidarity,” Walter said. “Women and allies around the world will stand with us today.”
A central message of the shutdown is the value of unpaid labour, including childcare, housework, elder care, and other domestic responsibilities, which economists estimate may be equivalent to 10% of South Africa’s GDP.
Organisers said Friday’s withdrawal was intended to show how deeply households, workplaces and communities rely on labour that is not formally recognised or compensated.
“If this country refuses to protect us, then we will show what happens when women stop holding the country together,” Walter said.
Friday’s action follows Women for Change’s march in April to the Union Buildings, which house South Africa’s presidency, where the organisation delivered a beaded casket representing the 5 578 women murdered in one year.
Each bead symbolised a life lost, and the casket was enlarged to reflect the recorded rise in femicide. The petition handed over during that march, calling for gender-based violence and femicide to be declared a national disaster, has since passed one million signatures.
Two weeks ago, the government formally rejected the petition.
Last week, however, ministers in cooperative governance, women, defence and justice met with the organisation, and the department responsible for disaster declarations indicated that the rejection “would need to be reconsidered”. Another meeting is scheduled for Friday.
Walter said the organisation’s central demand is unchanged. It wants a national disaster declaration under the Disaster Management Act to unlock emergency funding, coordinate interventions, and establish clear lines of accountability. “Symbolic statements are not enough.”
Support for the shutdown has come from student organisations, schools, universities, civil society institutions including the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Desmond Tutu Foundation and several corporates that have encouraged employees to take part.
Although misinformation about the shutdown has circulated online, no formal opposition has been reported. The action is decentralised and peaceful, with no marches or confrontations planned.
LGBTQI+ communities, particularly lesbians and trans women, who face some of the highest levels of targeted violence, are central to the movement. “They are not an add-on,” Walter said. “They are part of the crisis.”
Women for Change said it receives daily requests for assistance from survivors, and that Friday’s shutdown forms part of a longer-term programme of advocacy. “The shutdown is one moment in a long-term fight. Our work does not end today,” Walter said.
Economists note that the temporary withdrawal of unpaid labour, even for 15 minutes, makes visible how much of the country’s social and economic functioning relies on work that carries no formal protections. The noon stillness is intended to underscore that dependence and draw attention to the broader social and economic cost of gender-based violence.
Law-enforcement agencies have raised no concerns about Friday’s action, and no restrictions on participation have been announced. Workplaces have responded differently, with some allowing staff to pause together at noon and others asking employees to observe the moment individually, where duties do not allow a collective pause.