Women across South Africa heed call for ‘G20 Women’s Shutdown’ over GBV crisis | Woman and Home Magazine
Home activism Women across South Africa heed call for ‘G20 Women’s Shutdown’ over GBV crisis

Women across South Africa heed call for ‘G20 Women’s Shutdown’ over GBV crisis

written by Jade McGee November 21, 2025
Women across South Africa heed call for ‘G20 Women’s Shutdown’ over GBV crisis

As world leaders arrive for the G20 Summit, women across South Africa are heeding a call to “shut down” normal life on Friday in protest against the country’s relentless epidemic of gender-based violence and femicide.

The action, branded the “G20 Women’s Shutdown”, has been organised by advocacy group Women for Change and is timed to coincide with the gathering of heads of state and delegations in Gauteng.

Stay-away instead of a mass march

Unlike traditional marches, the shutdown is designed as a decentralised act of refusal. Women and gender-diverse people have been urged to stay away from work, school and unpaid care where possible, and to withdraw their labour for the day in protest at what organisers describe as a “catastrophic” level of violence.

Those who cannot stay home have been encouraged to take part from their workplaces and campuses by wearing purple, holding moments of silence, and joining small pickets during lunch breaks. Supporters were also asked to change their social media profile pictures to purple in solidarity and to share messages using campaign hashtags.

The University of Cape Town have shown the institutes’ solidarity to women and members of the LGBTQ+ community by lighting their pillars purple earlier this week:

In an explainer on its website, Women for Change describes the shutdown as a national act of remembrance for those killed, and of resistance by those who “live in fear at home, at work and in public spaces”.

Women across the country have taken part in the stay-away, and at 12pm today, 21 November, protesters lay down for a moment of silence for those who have lost their lives to GBV.

Demands for a national disaster declaration

At the centre of Friday’s action is a demand that the government upgrade its response to gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) by declaring it a national state of disaster, a step campaigners say would unlock emergency funding and coordination similar to the Covid-19 response.

Women for Change and allied organisations are calling for:

  • A formal disaster declaration on GBVF, with ring-fenced budgets and clear timelines

  • More specialised GBV courts and shelters, including in rural areas

  • Better police resourcing and accountability, especially in how cases are investigated and survivors treated

  • Transparent national data on femicide and GBV cases so progress can be measured. The Guardian

Their campaign comes against the backdrop of new national data showing South Africa’s femicide and GBV rates remain among the highest in the world. Police figures cited in recent reporting show 5,578 women and 1,656 children were murdered in the year to March 2024.

Government calls it a ‘crisis’

Earlier this week, President Cyril Ramaphosa told delegates at the G20 Social Summit in Boksburg that gender-based violence and femicide will be officially classified as a “crisis” that requires extraordinary action, and said men and boys must be “critical partners” in changing harmful norms.

He warned that the violence “erodes the social fabric of nations” and undermines development, and reiterated government support for global networks focused on women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health.

Activists welcomed the stronger language but say a crisis label does not go far enough. Women for Change has argued in previous campaigns that only a disaster declaration, backed by money and measurable targets, will match the scale of the emergency.

A shutdown built around ordinary women’s lives

Friday’s action is deliberately built around the realities of women who cannot always travel to big city marches, particularly those in informal work, rural areas or caregiving roles.

The organisation’s shutdown call notes that many women already “work multiple jobs, often unpaid, while still living with the threat of violence at home and in public spaces”, and frames the stay-away as a way for those same women to make that invisible labour visible by withholding it, even for a few hours.

Instead of a single focal march, the day is expected to unfold in thousands of smaller acts: women logging off online meetings, leaving office chairs empty, delaying shopping trips, or gathering in small circles outside magistrates’ courts, taxi ranks, and police stations to read out the names of victims and share their own experiences of abuse.

On social media, broadcasters, diplomats, and activists have amplified the action with images and video clips of women holding handmade placards, wearing purple and calling for justice, while global partners have issued messages of solidarity and urged South Africans to listen to the voices of those leading the shutdown.

Linked to wider shutdown actions

The G20 Women’s Shutdown forms part of a broader wave of protests and stay-aways timed for the G20. Business and commuter groups have been warned to expect disruption, with several civic movements announcing their own demonstrations on issues ranging from unemployment to service delivery.

Women for Change has insisted that its action is peaceful and non-partisan, with a single focus on ending violence against women, children and LGBTQI+ people. The group has previously handed over a petition with more than 150,000 signatures calling for GBVF to be treated as a national disaster.

As leaders gather behind security cordons and in conference halls, protesters say the shutdown is intended as a reminder that the crisis they are raising is not abstract policy, but part of the daily lives of women who commute to work, care for families and navigate public spaces in fear.

Whether the government moves from calling GBV a “crisis” to formally declaring a disaster remains to be seen, but women taking part in Friday’s shutdown say they want this G20 week to be remembered for their refusal to carry on as normal in the face of ongoing violence, as much as for any communiqués signed by heads of state.

ALSO SEE:

Ramaphosa declares gender-based violence a ‘crisis’ as shutdown looms before G20 Summit

Featured Image: Twitter

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