In South Africa, where more than a thousand women are killed every year by an intimate partner, where as many as a million rapes occur per year, where gender-based violence threatens economic growth by draining an estimated more than 40 billion Rand (more than 1% from the GDP) every year, civil society is ramping up our campaign to tell our government to stop paying empty lip service to gender-based violence, and to urgently develop and implement a comprehensive and fully funded national strategic plan to prevent, combat and respond to GBV.

Our message to the Minister of Women, Susan Shabangu, is that we support her interest in building women’s economic empowerment, but that she can’t ignore GBV as a critical issue deserving prioritization and urgent action. We remind her that women can’t contribute to the economy when they are at home with broken bones, that women can’t start businesses when they have been beaten to death, and that women cannot be empowered in the workplace when they are disempowered everywhere else.

During 16 Days of Activism, we tell Minister Shabangu, President Zuma and all of government that we are angry that earlier efforts (and promises) to develop a national plan to combat GBV have been put on hold, and that the National Council on GBV has been suspended, without any clear direction on who will now lead a national effort to address gender-based violence in South Africa, and the national plan continuously being shortchanged and sidelined.

Join us in our call to government to develop a national plan now! Tell our government that when it comes to GBV, South Africans want service delivery, not lip service.