By Lebone Rodah Mosima
Advocacy group Women For Change is intensifying plans for a national shutdown on Friday to demand that gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) be declared a national disaster.
The group told Inside Politics that declaring GBVF a national disaster is not only a symbolic act but a legal trigger that could unlock additional powers for the state.
Under the Disaster Management Act, the NPO said, a declaration would allow government to unlock emergency funding without standard bureaucratic delays, enable a national, centralised command structure, accelerate deployment of state resources, and impose legally binding timelines for intervention.
“Right now, GBVF is treated as a social issue. A disaster declaration treats it the way we treat floods, fires, and pandemics: urgent, life-threatening, and requiring extraordinary state action.”
Throughout its G20 presidency this year, South Africa has hosted dialogues and workshops on women’s empowerment, but the group said those talk
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