{"id":15820,"date":"2025-11-21T11:47:38","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T09:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/women-for-change-protest-highlights-grief-frustration-over-sas-gbv-crisis\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T12:35:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T10:35:02","slug":"women-for-change-protest-highlights-grief-frustration-over-sas-gbv-crisis","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/women-for-change-protest-highlights-grief-frustration-over-sas-gbv-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Women for Change protest highlights grief, frustration over SA\u2019s GBV crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The movement urged women to dress in black to mourn and honour victims of gender-based violence, a crisis that continues to scar communities across the country.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At Constitution Hill, scores of women lay prostrate on the ground for 15 minutes as the names of GBV victims were read aloud, a symbolic act meant to make visible the scale of lives lost.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">IN PICTURES | A moment of silence observed in honour of those who lost their lives through Gender-Based Violence. Pictures by Chriselda Lewis <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/womenshutdown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#womenshutdown<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/stopGBV?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#stopGBV<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/EndGBV?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#EndGBV<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VncfkROnAx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/VncfkROnAx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SABC News (@SABCNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SABCNews\/status\/1991831332121657348?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">November 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Many who took part said the demonstration revived painful memories of the 2018 Total Shutdown, a watershed moment that forced government to acknowledge the depth of SA\u2019s GBV emergency. That mobilisation contributed to the creation of the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One participant said returning to the streets years later was both powerful and heartbreaking.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt reminds me of 2018 when we had the first total shutdown, and by then government started listening. So we had the National Strategic Plan on Gender-based Violence. To do this again, a couple of years later, is really sad that we have to come together again. But I&#8217;m really glad that we have a movement of people, women and men, saying we\u2019ve had enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Another participant described the collective exhaustion that has become a constant reality for women in the country.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are women who are tired, who are exhausted, who live in fear of the many cases that are reported on a daily basis. We are exhausted, we are tired, and we are saying enough is enough on this particular day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Organisers said the action was intended not only to honour victims but also to confront global leaders gathering for the G20 Summit with the urgent need for stronger commitments to ending violence against women and children.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For those who lay on the hard ground at Constitution Hill, the message was clear: SA\u2019s women are mourning, mobilising and demanding that government and the world treat the country\u2019s GBV epidemic as the emergency it is.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15821,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-15820","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Women across Johannesburg say they have sent an unmistakable message to the South African (SA) government and G20 leaders after joining the G20 Women\u2019s Shutdown on Friday, an action driven by the advocacy group Women for Change.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Women across Johannesburg say they have sent an unmistakable message to the South African (SA) government and G20 leaders after joining the G20 Women\u2019s Shutdown on Friday, an action driven by the advocacy group Women for Change.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19895,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15820\/revisions\/19895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=15820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}