JOHANNESBURG – The Women For Change organisation is overwhelmed by the response to a national shutdown on 21 November.
Over the last few days, many South Africans have heeded the call to change their profile pictures on their social media pages to purple.
This is to show solidarity with victims and survivors of gender-based violence.
The organisation's Merlize Jogiat says they are calling on the government to treat GBV with the same urgency as other national crises.
“There is a framework around the declaration of a national disaster, and if you go through it, you’ll see that GBV meets the criteria.
“What we want is the same effect that Covid-19 had when it was declared a disaster. Resources and finances were released to mitigate immediate issues,” Jogiat said.
Jogiat adds that declaring GBV a national disaster would force government departments, police, and the justice system to confront their failures.
“A lot of these women are killed after not being able to open a case because police officers send them back or the judicial system fails them. There is so much brokenness in the system, and we have to change it from the inside.”
The planned shutdown is expected to happen on the day when the two-day G20 Summit commences, something which Jogiat says is deliberate.
“We understand that the world’s eyes are going to be on South Africa. But we don’t think there are enough eyes from our own government or communities on the scourge of GBV.
"This is the perfect opportunity to get everyone’s attention on how desperately we are crying for help as women in South Africa.”