In 2018, women and gender non-conforming persons embarked on a well-publicised series of protest actions, mainly under the #TotalShutDown banner, to bring attention to the high level of men’s violence against women (or rather womxn) and gender non-conforming persons. Marches were staged around the country. In Cape Town, for instance, marchers headed to parliament to deliver their list of 24 demands, while in Pretoria, another group of marchers led by the steering committee of #TotalShutDown went to the Union Buildings, where they called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to come out and receive the same list of demands, which he did. Among the demands were that the president speak out strongly against gender-based violence against womxn (GBVAW), commit to establishing a process to address and reduce GBVAW, and hold a summit on GBVAW before 30 August 2018.

While it did not take place by the given date, the Presidential Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) was held in November 2018. One of the outcomes of the summit was the establishment of the Interim Steering Committee on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (ISCGBVF). The committee in turn was tasked with the development of the Emergency Response Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, which was published in 2020. The committee also facilitated the development of the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide in the same year.

In light of the history of womxn’s fears, hurts, frustration, anger, deaths and outcries against men’s violence, the developments initiated by #TotalShutDown and the organic movement of womxn are both noteworthy and impressive. (At the same time, of course, these developments are linked to a history of women’s campaigns that should be recognised. Women have been fighting for gender and racial justice for decades. It is not the history of women’s struggles against male domination to which I am drawing attention, though.) The development of the National Strategic Plan was an undeniable milestone in women’s fight against gender-based violence and femicide. As the Plan states, the presence of gender-based violence and femicide in our society is a crisis. This is no exaggeration.