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GEORGE NEWS & VIDEO - Six months ago, a womxn* raised her voice with a status on Facebook. That status triggered a discussion about the weariness, fear, pain and frustration toward the persistently rising levels of gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide in South Africa. The discussion became a plan, which resulted in #TheTotalShutdown.
Within six weeks, the group grew to over 100 000 womxn from civil society. Candice Ludick provides some background and insights into the movement for George Herald readers.
On 1 August, twenty-six successful marches were held in each province of South Africa as well as neighbouring states. Locally, 165 women from all over the Garden Route gathered to march in George.
According to the South African crime statistics for 2017/18, a figure of 40 035 rapes were recorded - this equates to 110 rapes per day. In addition, Unicef reports that 530 child rapes occur daily. One womxn is murdered every four hours, 56% of them by their intimate partners.
These distressing figures rise persistently with each passing year, the conviction rates are low and many victims face secondary victimisation by those tasked with protecting them. In addition, the implementation of existing laws and policies, and the prioritisation of the allocation of resources in the fight against gender-based violence is grievously inadequate.
On 1 August, #TheTotalShutdown presented a memorandum of 24 demands to President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Union Buildings - one demand for each year of democracy in which our government has failed the womxn, gender non-conforming and LGBTQI community of our country. View the memorandum of 24 demands at www.thetotalshutdown.org.za.
The first demand, a national summit to address the pandemic of gender-based violence and femicide, has been met. This summit, a first in our country's history, was held in Irene, Tshwane on 1 and 2 November. Five key priority actions were discussed at the summit, the main one being the immediate establishment of an emergency national multi-sectoral council on GBV.
Audrey Lorde once stated, "I am not free while any other womxn is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own," and this is the point at which the fight begins. The journey in the battle against gender-based violence has merely begun, and with the annual 16 Days of Activism around the corner, #TheTotalShutdown is calling for a new approach and demanding a commitment to 365 Days of Activism at all levels of society - "the war on our bodies and lives cannot be diminished to a mere 16 days."
In the Garden Route there are active task teams in George, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay.
Watch a video below.
For more information or to become involved in #TheTotalShutdown in the Garden Route, contact Candice Ludick on 060 715 3607 or Camille Haupt on 074 335 5500.
* The term "womxn" is deliberate. The x allows space for individuals who identify as gender-fluid, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, or non-binary. The "x" in womxn opens up the free-human-womxn concept to include trans womxn (see: https://www.dailydot.com/irl/womyn/).
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