Under a blazing Northern Cape sun, a few hundred men and women, mostly dressed in black with a purple accessory, lay down in silence on the square of the Central Campus of the Sol Plaatje University (SPU) in Kimberley.
This formed part of a nationwide peaceful demonstration, the G20 Women’s Shutdown, from 12:00 on Friday 21 November during which participants lay down for 15 minutes to honour the 15 women murdered daily in the country. The demonstrators wore black as a sign of “mourning and resistance”.
Marang Itulemeleng, third-year student at SPU and activist against gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), who addressed the crowd, said perpetrators of GBVF were going on as if nothing had happened, while their victims were scared and scarred.
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Several times she asked the rhetorical question “where do you go?” if you cannot go home, to church, to work, or to friends − as GBVF can take place at any of these “safe” places.
She asked victims to promise themselves to take the courage to stand up and speak up.
Tshidiso Mothomme said he was taking part as he wanted to contribute to making a change, saying he knew someone affected by GBV.
Two soul-sisters of the murdered Mathebe Veronica Assegaai, Dienette Sello and Lucia Bogacwi, held enlarged photos of Assegaai, saying they would always love and miss her. Assegaai (38) was gunned down in 2024 in front of her home in John Daka in Galeshewe. She was shot in the head by an unknown assailant.
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Women for Change, a non-profit organisation that advocates for the constitutional rights of women and children in South Africa, staged this demonstration − calling on Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa to declare GBVF a national disaster and gathering more than a million signatures in a petition.
On 21 November, South Africa classified violence against women a national disaster following the online campaign culminating in the countrywide demonstrations.
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