News Center – South Africa records one of the highest rates of femicide in the world, with around seven women killed daily and more than 100 women raped each day, according to official statistics. This phenomenon has become a national crisis linked to gender-based violence, sparking increasing calls for a “zero tolerance” policy.

Women’s rights organizations in South Africa, led by the feminist movement Shutdown, called today, Friday, November 21, for large-scale nationwide protests to denounce gender-based violence in a country where assaults on women have become both common and alarming. United Nations Women statistics indicate that a woman is killed every two and a half hours, roughly 15 women per day.

The organizations have called on women to lie on the ground for 15 minutes in a protest dubbed the “Purple Protest,” pausing work inside and outside their homes to reject femicides, describing the phenomenon as a “national catastrophe.”

The country had declared at the 2019 G20 Summit that “gender-based violence and femicide represent a national crisis.” In this context, activists are calling on women in Africa and worldwide to wear black in mourning for victims of murder, or purple to symbolize the feminist movement.

It is worth noting that this campaign started on virtual platforms and will culminate today with a nationwide shutdown ahead of the G20 Summit in Johannesburg.