#G20WomenShutdown: Will South Africa wake up to women's struggles before it's too late?
Opinion
As the G20 Summit approaches, South Africa is witnessing a powerful display of solidarity as women nationwide call for a national shutdown, turning the country purple in protest and demand for change.
Image: Ron
ON November 21 — just 24 hours before the momentous G20 Summit — South Africa will come to a near-complete halt.
The G20 Women’s Shutdown will see people from across the nation and beyond band together to pull their labour, their presence, and their spending, and send a message that cannot be softened or ignored: that this country only runs because women do. And the relentless violence against women is intolerable and will certainly cost us our future.
Organised by non-profit organisation Women For Change, the #G20WomenShutdown will be a collective widespread movement that will spotlight what our society has for far too long taken for granted: that no one should be expected to serve a society that ignores their suffering. And for decades now, this has been the tune of our nation.
This year, in the span of three months alone, 28 091 women reported domestic-violence-related crimes. That is 2 185 every week, 311 every day, 13 every hour, and one every four minutes. And those numbers are only the reported cases. So many more suffer in silence. These are not mere figures, they reflect our mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, neighbours and colleagues. They reflect human beings whose lives are devalued in a society that refuses to see them as fully human.
It must be clear: violence against women is actually the most visible symptom of a much larger crisis. It exposes a society that ignores abuses, tolerates inequality, and actively fails half of its entire population, at nearly every level. This shutdown is not only about violence. It is about valuation. It is about demanding recognition for the countless ways women sustain life and society while being silenced, sidelined, and erased.
Women’s work is everywhere — from teaching, to healthcare, to engineering, agriculture, creative industries, the informal economy, and beyond. Socially, professionally, culturally, women are expected to do it all, and more.
Yet, women are rarely compensated, celebrated, or protected. They face daily threats of gender-based violence, systemic discrimination, limited opportunities, and more. Their labour keeps families, communities, and the economy afloat, yet their safety, dignity, and voices are frequently ignored, and their deaths swept under the rug.
From a young age, girls are often taught to shrink their voices, to defer, to put others first, to endure. The girl child in township schools, the adolescent navigating unsafe streets, the young woman carrying multiple jobs while also holding emotional labour for her family — these are the realities ignored by a society that claims “progress” while normalising violence.
From human trafficking to sexual assault, from workplaces that roll their eyes at harassment, to families that shamelessly blame survivors, women in our society are treated as a mere afterthought.
And the roots of this crisis run deep. Patriarchy, sexism, entitlement, apartheid legacies, and economic inequality fester in our society and perpetuate a normalised violence against women. A UN Report stated that South Africa’s femicide rate is six times the global average. Last year alone, 5 578 women were murdered, a 33.8% increase from the previous year.
The prevailing issue is that, in our contemporary society, sexual offences are so rampant, widely underreported, and dishearteningly under-prosecuted. These are not isolated failures. They are systemic, deliberate, and entrenched in our society.
This shutdown is going to serve as a mirror. It asks: What happens when we lose the women we keep killing? What happens when nurses do not turn up for shifts? When teachers stay home? When caregivers stop cooking and cleaning? When do artists, innovators, and traders withdraw their work? Society falters. And that is the point: Women are essential, indispensable, and irreplaceable. Society cannot function without us, and yet it continues to act as though our lives, labour, and safety are optional.
Intersectionality matters. Black women, rural women, women with disabilities, LGBTQI+ women, and sex workers are disproportionately affected. Patriarchy, when combined with poverty, discrimination, imperialism, and neglect, ultimately suffocates our entire nation. It’s society that’s broken, not women. That’s the crisis we must fix.
This shutdown also forces accountability — from individuals, communities, and institutions. It is a challenge to every citizen: to confront their complicity, to unlearn entitlement, to reject the small violence and normalised harassment that create a culture where women are expendable.
Furthermore, at the beginning of this year, the South African Police Service (SAPS) reported a staggering increase in cases of sexual violence. Their report from January to March recorded 13 453 sexual offences — 10 688 of which were rape cases.
Considering the number of people who do not report cases of gender-based violence for various reasons, such as victim-blaming, corrupt processes and even threats of violence, we cannot begin to underestimate the impact of GBVF in our society. Although our nation has taken steps to address GBVF through policy interventions, our biggest issue remains the lack of implementation and enforcement.
We have been crying about the same issues around GBVF for far too long now. We know that law enforcement must remain resourced and accountable, that courts must work ethically and fairly, and that policies must be enforced. But it is also every neighbour, colleague, family member, and friend who must act.
Change requires collective action. On November 21, moments before the eyes of the globe are set on our nation, women everywhere will reveal the true weight of their role in keeping society running. They will force our entire society to confront the violence, neglect, and systemic failures that threaten their very survival.
Globally, women’s safety and labour are undervalued, even in wealthy countries. But in contexts like ours, where inequality, poverty, and systemic failure magnify vulnerabilities, the consequences are lethal. This shutdown is part of a regional wave of activism, with women in Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and beyond refusing to be silenced. Solidarity is not just symbolic — it is recognition that structural violence against women is a pandemic that transcends borders.
The government’s rejection of calls to declare GBVF a national crisis has sparked widespread outrage. By hiding behind technicalities in the Disaster Management Act, officials have dismissed the daily terror, threats and fears of women, treating systemic murder and abuse as something that “doesn’t meet the legal definition” of a crisis.
This response is not just tone-deaf — it is insulting, dangerous, and a glaring reminder that the lives of women continue to be deprioritised, leaving communities to bear the brunt of our leaders’ inaction. The continued mistreatment of women is not just basic violence; it is the mindless contravention of human rights, it is the mark of a morally bankrupt system, and it is a symptom of a seriously rotten society. If we miss this wake-up call, our society may be collectively doomed.
The HSRC found that one in three women in South Africa will experience some form of physical violence in their lives. From the Cape to Limpopo, from Uyinene Mrwetyana to little Cwecwe, women are simply not safe in our society. This is a stain on the South Africa that our liberation heroes died for. This is a betrayal of their backbreaking sacrifice for a safer society and future.
The G20 Women’s Shutdown is a siren, not only to our society, but to the world, that we are human. We are essential. We are irreplaceable. Until our labour and our lives are valued, the nation is failing at its most basic duty.
The #G20WomenShutdown is showing us what women have known from the very start: that it is not enough to feel outrage once a week or share hashtags online. Real change demands sustained attention, structural reform, and collective responsibility.
On the cusp of the G20, we must ask ourselves what kind of future we are building. How can we plan tomorrow when women are being murdered today and nothing changes? Truly, the humanity of women has been neglected, and on November 21, the nation will feel the true consequences of this neglect.
* Tswelopele Makoe is a gender and social justice activist and editor at Global South Media Network. She is a researcher, columnist, and an Andrew W Mellon scholar at the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice, UWC.
** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, IOL, or Independent Media.