With 15 Women Killed Every Day, South Africa Has Declared Violence Against Women A National Disaster
South Africa buries a woman every 2.5 hours, and every day at least 15 women are murdered and 117 women report rape cases to the police.
The government of South Africa has officially declared gender- based violence and femicide — the killing of a woman because of her gender — as a national emergency.
This comes after mass protests from women across the country in response to a string of attacks on women that have been occurring over 2025.
South Africa buries a woman every 2.5 hours, and every day at least 15 women are murdered and 117 women report rape cases to the police, according to local women’s rights organization, Women For Change.
On May 25, Oloerato Mongale, a 30-year-old woman, was killed after going missing in Johannesburg.
Her kidnapping was captured on CCTV as she was last seen getting into a car with a false license plate, and days later, her body was found.
No one has been arrested for her murder after a man died following a shootout with South African police.
Mongale’s case is one of the notable incidents of gender-based violence that led to outcry from women in South Africa.
Last year, in 2024, 15 women were killed in a mass shooting in Lusikisiki, a town in the Eastern Cape, by eight unidentified gunmen.
Three men were also shot, and one suspect was later arrested and charged with all 18 counts of murder.
In response to the crisis, Women For Change called on all women across South Africa to strike from paid and unpaid work, including labour in their own homes, to allow the country to feel the impact of their economic and social absence.
A petition by Women for Change has also gathered more than a million signatures, calling on the government to declare a national emergency, which will allow the government to coordinate resources across policing, courts, healthcare and social services.
Women across Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban laid down in the streets on Friday, Nov. 21, after a series of killings targeting women.
During the demonstrations in Cape Town’s Observatory area, a driver rammed into women taking part in the shutdown, injuring two people during the 15-minute silent lie-in.
Hours after the protest on Friday, South Africa’s National Disaster Management Centre formally declared gender-based violence and femicide a national disaster “after evaluating the persistent and immediate life-safety risks posed by ongoing acts of violence”, according to the Guardian.
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