South Africa’s Women Remind the World That Progress Without Safety Is No Progress at All

As world leaders converge on Johannesburg for the G20 summit, the most powerful message this week did not come from a conference hall, but from a city park. Hundreds of South African women — dressed in black, lying silently on the grass — transformed grief into protest, reminding their nation and the world that gender-based violence remains one of South Africa’s deepest scars.

Their 15-minute lie-down was more than a symbolic act. Each minute represented one of the 15 women lost every day to gender-based violence and femicide — a shocking statistic in a country that prides itself on its progressive constitution and vocal commitment to equality. For many who joined the protest, including survivors, the silence spoke louder than any chant could.

South Africa’s femicide rate, five times the global average according to UN Women, has been described as a “second pandemic”. Decades of advocacy have brought visibility, but not enough transformation. This latest demonstration, organised by the non-profit group Women for Change, was both a moment of mourning and a challenge to authority — a demand that the promises of gender parity not remain merely aspirational.

The government’s response, declaring gender-based violence a national disaster, is significant if — and it is a large if — it translates into sustained action. Too often, powerful declarations have been followed by administrative inertia. The crisis demands more than statements: it requires resources, reform, enforcement, and a cultural shift that holds perpetrators truly accountable.

When President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged this week that “the women of our country are crying out”, he gave voice to a truth felt well beyond South Africa. Across the globe, gender-based violence persists in societies that call themselves modern, democratic, and fair. What we witnessed in Johannesburg was not only a South African protest, but a universal plea: for safety, dignity, and equality to be more than words recited at international summits.

As the G20 deliberates over economies and global stability, those silent women — lying still yet unyielding — offered a quiet but profound reminder: there can be no genuine prosperity, no sustainable progress, in a society where half its people must live in fear.