On Friday, November 21, South African women and members of the LGBTQI+ community are being urged to stage a nationwide shutdown in protest against gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide.
The call comes from the activist group Women For Change, which says the demonstration aims to highlight the social and economic impact of women’s absence. This is just a day before the G20 Leaders’ Summit.
“We call on all women and members of the LGBTQI+ community across South Africa to refrain from all paid and unpaid work in workplaces, universities, and homes, and to spend no money for the entire day to demonstrate the economic and social impact of their absence,” the organisation said.
The protest, organisers emphasise, is intended to draw attention to the country’s persistent violence against women, which they say is claiming a life every 2.5 hours.
Participants in the shutdown are being asked to take part in a symbolic 15-minute standstill at 12pm, lying down for 15 minutes to honour the 15 women murdered daily in the country.
Demonstrators are encouraged to wear black to signify mourning and resistance, and to change their social media profile pictures to purple to make the shutdown visible online.
“Don’t work. No paid or unpaid labour. Don’t spend money and withdraw from the economy for one day. Join the 15-Minute Standstill by lying down for 15 minutes at 12 pm to honour the 15 women murdered every day and bring South Africa to a complete standstill,” the organisation said.
However, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has declared the province ready and prepared to host the G20. Lesufi said enough measures have been taken to improve certain areas of concern to ensure a crime-free and safer province for international travellers to return to South Africa beyond the summit.
‘”We know areas of deep concern, and we have used some meetings building up to the summit as dry runs. We have a good grasp of this area of concern, but we do not doubt our state of readiness… We want to say to the chance takers and those who are planning to disrupt us to dare us, because we are ready for them,” he said.
Lesufi added that the province has invested in state-of-the-art security, which will ensure that world leaders and international guests are safe at all times.
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