Activist group Women For Change plans national shutdown ahead of G20 Summit

Johannesburg, Nov 12 (PTI) Women For Change (WFC) -- one of South Africa’s leading organisations combating gender-based violence -- has announced the G20 Women’s Shutdown, a nationwide action taking place on November 21, the day before world leaders meet for the G20 Summit in Johannesburg.

“Every 2.5 hours, a woman is killed in South Africa. Our silence has been met with inaction. Now, our silence will be our protest. Before the G20 meets to talk about growth and progress, South African women will show them what happens when we disappear. You cannot speak of economies while women live in fear,” said Sabrina Walter, Founder and Executive Director of WFC.

“On this day, women and members of the LGBTQI+ community across South Africa will refrain from all paid and unpaid work – in workplaces, universities, homes, and communities – to demonstrate the economic and social impact of their absence. The action demands urgent recognition of the country’s Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) crisis as a National Disaster,” WFC said in a statement.

“We call upon President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Government of South Africa to take immediate and decisive steps to address the scourge of violence against women.

“We also call on international leaders and global allies to stand with South African women by demanding accountability and action,” WFC said.

The NGO said that the G20 cannot speak of growth or progress when a woman is killed every 2.5 hours in South Africa, which is hosting the Summit as it ends its Presidency.

The Presidency is to be handed over to the US for the next year, although President Donald Trump announced last week that there would be no US representation at the G20 Summit in Johannesburg.

South African security agencies, who have introduced heightened measures around the city and especially at the venue for the G20, expressed concern about potential public demonstrations such as that of WFC during the event.

Police said that groups planning to protest will be directed to a designated Speaker’s Corner where gatherings would be allowed to take place without disrupting any Summit activities.

The provincial head of the police, Major General Fred Kekana, said that this was because South Africa remains committed to upholding every citizen’s constitutional right to protest. But he emphasised that the Summit venue itself will remain secured and inaccessible to the general public. PTI FH NB NB