Statistical Speaking
Women and some men are taking to social media to speak against gender based violence (GBV) in South Africa. If you are not aware, for the longest time, South Africa has been faced with high crime rates, and GBV has been a major contributor to the statistics. And the violent crimes against women have been frightening, from women being murdered by their partners to attempted kidnappings by e-hailing drivers. Let’s just say it is and has been a scary time to be a woman living in South Africa.
Enough is enough
If you have been on social media this week, you have likely encountered the colour purple filling the feed and the comments. Maybe you were unaware and thought it must be another trend. But it isn’t, it is people finally taking a stand, finally calling for action, calling for something to be done, for consequence. This is not just temporary rage but rather a cry for all the victims of harassment, assault, murder and all the in-between. It is a cry for protection, for justice and for a difference to be made, a difference to be seen when handling gender based violence cases. It is a cry for the families who lost their children, the heartbreak, the heartache they have experienced before and after the loss of a loved one to violent crimes. It is a loud cry for attention to an issue that has been ignored for far too long. An issue that has been overlooked, like music playing quietly in the background, just making aimless noise. This is a movement to break the silence of officials in higher places for GBV to finally be declared a national disaster.
21 November 2025
Prior to the shutdown and withdrawal from the economy just a night before, something happened. The President of South Africa declared GBV a “national crisis” . This brought about mixed feelings from joy to scepticism. The choice of words has gotten others questioning the intent and saying that this will have no impact. While others have rejoiced that the matter has supposedly finally been taken seriously. This, of course, came after the petition to declare GBV a national disaster reached a million signatures. Many people are questioning this declaration as just a week ago, the petition was rejected because there are other existing frameworks (National Strategic Plan (NSP) on GBVF). And previously, the authorities had argued that GBV just did not meet the definition of being a disaster.
The Issue at hand
The GBV issue, many times, has been reduced to something frivolous. We often forget that there are real victims, that there are broken families. Some people have made this a gender war. Called the movement “performative activism” , turned everything into a political agenda war and reduced the whole thing into a “distraction”. While real people are being buried, someone is sitting in an abusive relationship now, and someone else is missing.
