By Charmaine Ndlela
Government asked the country’s media and entertainment industries to help tackle gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) at the launch of the 16 Days of Activism campaign in Johannesburg.
At the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand on Tuesday, Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Sindisiwe Chikunga said South Africa had reached a turning point after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to classify GBVF as a national crisis.
She called on broadcasters, filmmakers, and advertisers to “rewrite the script” on violence against women and children.
“We gather here because GBVF has been recognised as a national crisis. The question before us is: what does this crisis look like in the lives of women, children and communities?” Chikunga asked.
According to advocacy group Women for Change, 5,578 women were murdered in South Africa in 2024 – a 33.8% increase in femicide compared with the previous year.
The Human Sciences Research Council’s National Gender-Based Violence Study, released this month, found that 33.1% of women aged 18 and older experienced physical violence in their lifetime. The study linked widespread childhood physical, sexual and emotional abuse to a higher likelihood of violence later in life.
Chikunga said the country’s own GBVF prevalence study showed high rates of lifetime exposure to physical and sexual violence and significant levels of perpetration admitted by men, alongside tens of thousands of sexual offences reported to police every year.
“The President’s decision to classify GBVF as a national crisis must be a turning point: from uneven gains to emergency-level action, funding and coordination in every sphere of society,” she said. “Colleagues, this is real progress, but it is far from enough for a crisis of this magnitude.”
She said the creative industries were central to shifting the norms that sustain violence.
“Today’s summit focuses on the media, entertainment and film industries because narrative is infrastructure,” she said. “Your industry does not simply entertain, it sets the emotional and moral temperature of the nation.”
She asked executives and content creators to align their standards with local and international guidelines on harmful content and digital safety. She also urged them to adopt a GBVF portrayal and editorial code, and ensure safer workplaces, including protections against tech-facilitated abuse, and to ensure stronger safeguards on sets.
Government, she said, had expanded Thuthuzela Care Centres, victim-friendly rooms at police stations and specialised GBVF desks.
DNA backlogs in sexual offence cases had been cleared, she said, and rapid-response teams had been rolled out under the National Strategic Plan on GBVF.
But she said laws and services alone could not end the crisis. “Only you, the storytellers of this country, can change the cultural climate in which violence becomes thinkable,” she said.
At the same event, Deputy Justice Minister Andries Nel, delivering a message of support on behalf of Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi.
“The Preamble to the Constitution reminds us of the society we are called to build, one grounded in equality, dignity, justice, and the protection of human rights. These principles lie at the heart of our fight against gender-based violence and femicide.
“When violence persists, the constitutional promise remains unfulfilled. When women and children live in fear, our democracy is weakened. Ending GBVF is therefore not only a moral responsibility; it is a constitutional obligation shared by every one of us.”
Speaking about the creative sector, he said “film, television, music, theatre, writing, and digital media can shift attitudes in ways that law and policy alone cannot”.
“As we recommit ourselves today, let us ensure that the values of the Constitution guide our actions. Let us build a society where every woman and child can walk freely, live safely, and realise, in the words of the Preamble to the Constitution, their full potential,” Nel said.
“Together, let us rewrite the script – from fear to freedom, from silence to dignity, from violence to hope.”
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