DECLARATION OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AND FEMICIDE AS A NATIONAL CRISIS AT THE G20 SOCIAL SUMMIT

ONLINE EDITOR @KASIBC_AFRICA

DECLARATION OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AND FEMICIDE AS A NATIONAL CRISIS AT THE G20 SOCIAL SUMMIT 

The ANC Women’s League has been consistent in advancing the struggle against the scourge of Gender Based Violence and Femicide, which has ravaged our country with a series of attacks on innocent women and children in unprecedented levels.  

We have since intensified the struggle to end the merciless killing of women through protest marches, mass prayers and petitions to lobby society for collaboration against this scourge. 

In November last year we organised a march to the executive seat of our government in Tshwane, and unambiguously demanded a Declaration of the National State of Disaster.

Notwithstanding a series of other campaigns which followed from our structures in various provinces, including a march to the National Assembly in Cape Town in April 2025, where we also submitted a list of demands for expeditious interventions and to firm up our call for the Declaration of the State of Disaster. 

We have since taken our campaign to relevant authorities through round-table engagements with the Office of the State President, and met with the Honourable Deputy President Comrade Paul Mashatile, and a commitment was made to expedite radical interventions to combat the scourge. 

After lengthy bureaucratic processes, delegated by the President to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, as directed by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the ANC Women’s League is proud to inform the nation that we have a breakthrough, the President has indeed Declared GBVF a National Crisis at the G20 Social Summit today at Birchwood, and this is informed by the regulatory framework of our country. 

The Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs will in the next few days proceed with due processes for the coordination of the different elements of activities, in order to realise the full implementation of the course of action. 

We therefore want to applaud all our structures, the progressive women’s formations, faith-based organisations, and civil society organisations who came together in a collaborative alliance of the motive forces in defence of women and children. 

This declaration is a victory for all South African women and vulnerable groups who continue to fall prey to vicious men, and we believe this shall be the beginning of the end to the most atrocious onslaught to be experienced in this country, since the dawn of freedom. 

The ANC Women’s League will closely monitor the progress as the developments unfold in the process of implementation as per the guidelines of the Disaster Management Act, and we await the decision on the categorisation thereof, by the end of November. 

We once again commend our President and the government for finally ceding to our call, for this shall never be about triumphalism on the part of the ANC Women’s League but our revolutionary duty to realise the total emancipation of women in our lifetime. 

The ANC Women’s League remains steadfast in our resolve to be the voice of the voiceless and defend women and all vulnerable groups. 

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