PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Before the G20 meets, South African women will silence the nation.”

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 Friday, 21 November 2025, the day before world leaders meet for the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

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.

Enough Said.

In April 2025, Women For Change handed over a national petition to the South African government, calling for GBVF to be declared a National Disaster. To date, there have been no concrete answers, no accountability, and no meaningful action.

That petition has since grown to over 200,000 signatures, representing a collective outcry from South Africans who have had enough of the government’s failure to protect women and members of the LGBTQI+ community from violence, rape, and murder.

“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 Women For Change.

A Call for National and Global Solidarity

Women For Change is calling on businesses, corporates, political parties, and civil society organisations to stand with women in solidarity by:

• • Granting women and members of the LGBTQI+ community a paid day of solidarity leave on Friday, 21 November 2025;
  • Supporting employees and members in joining the shutdown; and
  • Amplifying the call for GBVF to be declared a National Disaster.

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.

On Friday, 21 November 2025, South Africa’s women will bring the nation to a standstill. Because without women, there is no economy. Because until South Africa stops burying a woman every 2.5 hours, the G20 cannot speak of growth or progress.

This is not just a shutdown – it is a national reckoning and a global call to conscience. The world will be watching. The time is NOW.

#WomenForChange #WomenShutdown #UnburyTheTruth

 

For media inquiries, interviews, or partnership opportunities: media@womenforchange.co.za