For the realization of the Women’s Shutdown Movement on 21 November 2025, Women for Change presented a petition with over one million signatures demanding that GBVF be declared a national disaster. The government rejected it, claiming the existing strategic plan was sufficient. But how can any plan be sufficient when femicide rates have increased by 33.8 percent? Where is the transparency on funding allocation? Where is the evidence of implementation? Where are the results?

21 November, South African women, gender-diverse people, allies, and communities across the country are being called to do the unthinkable in a society built on constant movement: to shut down, to pause, to refuse business as usual. The Women’s Shutdown Movement is not another awareness campaign. It is a bold act of collective refusal a refusal to accept a country where women live as though violence is the natural cost of being alive.

This shutdown serves as an urgent reminder that South Africa is in the midst of a national emergency. Despite decades of policy reforms, community mobilization, and state interventions, women remain painfully unsafe in their homes, their communities, their workplaces, and in public spaces. The names of victims echo year after year, each tragedy met with promises that rarely materialise into protection, prevention, or justice. South Africa’s women are tired of asking.

The shutdown symbolises a powerful truth, the abuse and killing of women who are mothers, sisters, and daughters. These are the women who carry the country on their backs: they are the caregivers, community builders, educators, informal traders, healers, and workers who are rightful members of society. If women stopped for even a day, the country would feel it.

21 November 2025, we withdraw. Not in anger alone, but in fierce, determined hope that this time, finally, South Africa will understand the cost of our absence and the value of our lives.

On the day, wear black. Withdraw your labor. Refuse to spend. Join the 15-minute standstill at noon. Turn your profiles purple. Share this message. Show South Africa what happens when women say ‘no more.’

Because until we stop burying a woman every 2.5 hours, the G20 cannot speak of growth and progress.

When women stop, the country stops. And maybe, finally, those in power will start listening.

On 21 November, noon  participants will lie down in silence for fifteen minutes, one minute for each woman murdered daily. This is not theatre. This is grief made visible. This is a collective refusal to normalize violence.

Dr Mary Kgole, Department of Social Work and Criminology, University of Pretoria

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Pretoria.