Women For Change criticises SA GBV laws ahead of nationwide shutdown

Women For Change plans nation shutdown for the 21st of this month.

Advocacy group, Women For Change, has criticised South Africa’s legislation on gender-based violence and femicide, saying it’s good only on paper.

Many South Africans across social media have changed their profile pictures to purple in solidarity with a nationwide shutdown against GBVF set to take place on the 21st of this month.

The demonstrations aim to highlight the social and economic impact of women’s absence by protesters refraining from all forms of paid and unpaid labour for a day. This is just a day before the G20 Leaders’ Summit.

The Women For Change activist, Michael Benevolent-Masina, says, “We, in putting this campaign just the day before the G20, is our way of saying, actually, before we even talk about progress in our country, can we talk about the current state of our country? And that is the lived experiences of women and children, as well as members of the LGBTQI community that are killed and slain every single day.”

Masina says the crisis is not recieving the necessary attention.

“And those numbers keep rising and rising. And that has been left silent by the very people who are meant to be protecting us and the very people who are supposed to be our leaders. So, that is definitely not a coincidence,” adds Masina.