Keynote address by Hon. Sindisiwe Lydia Chikunga, Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities
Launch of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children
Theme: “Letsema: Men, Women, Boys and Girls working together to end GBVF”
Sub-theme: “Rewriting the script: Harnessing film, arts and media to prevent GBVF”
Date: 25 November 2025
Event time: 09:00 – 17h00 | Keynote slot: 09h40 - 10h25
Venue: Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand, Gauteng
Programme Director, Ms Penny Lebyane;
Premier of the Province of Gauteng, Mr Panyaza Lesufi;
Honourable Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mr Andries Nel;
Honourable Deputy Minister of Social Development, Mr Ganief Hendricks;
Prof Thuli Madonsela, the Former Public Protector of South Africa;
Prof Nwabisa Shai, South African Medical Research Council;
Ms Nicky Le Roux, Ford Foundation;
Ms Vonani Rikhotso, Human Sciences Research Council;
Editors-in-Chief, showrunners and producers, broadcasters, streamers, advertisers, social partners;
Distinguished guests — and above all, survivors; good morning.
On behalf of the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, and the women of South Africa, thank you for gathering to launch the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence and Femicide. We meet not for symbolism, but for accountability.
Fellow South Africans, just this Saturday, the G20 Leaders’ Declaration adopted in Johannesburg reaffirmed the global commitment to women’s and girls’ empowerment; condemned all forms of violence, online and offline; and called for stronger action to eradicate sexual violence and harassment. It also endorsed reforms to expand women’s access to finance and markets, and committed to major investment in the care economy by 2030.
South Africa led that consensus. Our task now is to implement it boldly at home.
Today’s summit focuses on the media, entertainment and film industries because narrative is infrastructure. History tells us that stories shape what society sees as normal, possible and acceptable. They influence beliefs, law-making, relationships, markets, and everyday behaviour.
And South Africa has always understood the power of story. We know Mama Miriam Makeba carried our struggle to the world when politics tried to silence us. Bra Hugh Masekela turned music into a weapon of resistance. And in our democracy, Soul City taught us that television can save lives — shifting how communities understood HIV, relationships and gender.
Our artists have always shaped our nation. Today, we need that same cultural courage in the fight against GBVF.
You see, when we change the narrative, we shift the culture and behavioural change will follow. That is the silent power of the industries in this room.
Whether through drama, current affairs or advertising, this sector has the influence to flip the script: to end a culture that normalises violence, and replace it with one that normalises dignity, consent, care and accountability.
The question before us is simple: does the sector recognise the scale of its influence in shaping the society we are becoming?
Ladies and gentlemen,
This year, our campaign takes place under the theme: “Letsema: Men, Women, Boys and Girls working together to end GBVF.” “Letsema” is a Sesotho word meaning working together to accomplish a shared task — a communal practice where everyone contributes to the wellbeing of all. In isiZulu and isiXhosa, we speak of ukubambisana, doing umsebenzi ndawonye — working together.
We gather here because GBVF has been recognised as a national crisis. The question before us is: what does this crisis look like in the lives of women, children and communities?
Despite decades of activism, legal reform and investment, gender-based violence remains deeply entrenched.
Globally, one in three women — about 736 million — will experience physical or sexual violence in her lifetime, most often at the hands of someone she knows.
Here at home, drawing on evidence compiled by the HSRC and research partners, South Africa’s GBVF Prevalence Study confirms the scale of harm and lifetime exposure to violence among women and girls:
33.1% — women and girls who have experienced physical violence in their lifetime.
7.9% — ever-partnered women who have experienced sexual violence from a partner.
27% — women who have experienced physical or sexual violence by a non-partner since age 15.
20.5% — ever-partnered men who admitted to perpetrating physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence.
SAPS data records tens of thousands of sexual offences every year, with persistent hotspots and predictable spikes on weekends, paydays and in areas saturated with alcohol outlets.
The National Prosecuting Authority’s case analysis shows a disturbing rise in sexual offences involving under-age boys, including boys as young as 12. Case attrition remains high because of delayed reporting, intimidation of witnesses, weak evidence preservation and other systemic failures.
Local and global research confirms that alcohol and substance abuse are major accelerants of violence. In many communities:
Liquor outlets cluster in ways that would never be accepted in wealthier areas;
Late trading hours keep alcohol flowing through the night, often near schools, churches and youth spaces;
Alcohol marketing — in adverts and in entertainment content — repeatedly links masculinity to dominance, risk and sexual conquest.
In SAPS hotspot precincts, GBVF severity and fatality risk spike where alcohol, drugs and firearms intersect.
The media environment also shapes this crisis. Sensationalist coverage, victim-blaming narratives and “crime of passion” framing normalise coercion, suppress reporting and retraumatise survivors. Repeated depictions of violent masculinities — often paired with glamorised alcohol use — quietly teach boys and men what power should look like.
Boys and girls absorb patriarchal norms early through homes, schools, faith spaces, peers and the content they consume daily. By adulthood, many of these patterns are already deeply rooted.
This is the crisis we face: high levels of violence, powerful structural drivers like alcohol and inequality, and a cultural environment — including parts of our media and advertising space — that too often reinforces, rather than disrupts, harmful norms.
Programme Director,
We must also be honest that South Africa is not starting from zero. In 2020, after the demands of the #TotalShutdown movement and the Presidential GBVF Summit, President Ramaphosa launched the National Strategic Plan on GBVF — our ten-year roadmap to a South Africa free from violence against women, children and LGBTQIA+ persons. It is built on six pillars: accountability and coordination; prevention and social cohesion; protection and justice; response and healing; women’s economic power; and research and data.
Today, as part of this 16 Days launch, we are officially releasing the NSP Five-Year Review — a moment of accountability and recommitment from all of us. The review confirms that while progress is visible, the scale of the crisis requires faster, deeper and more coordinated action.
The review shows important gains: multi-sectoral structures for accountability; regular reporting by more than thirty national departments; and stronger partnerships between government, civil society, business and development partners.
Under this roadmap we have seen historic legislative reform — including amendments to the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences), Domestic Violence, and Criminal and Related Matters Acts — and the passing of the National Council on GBVF Act, which will anchor long-term coordination once fully operational.
On the ground, the justice system is slowly becoming more survivor-centred. There are now about 66 Thuthuzela Care Centres, more than 1 100 victim-friendly rooms at police stations, over 1 200 dedicated GBVF desks, and the DNA backlog in GBVF cases has been cleared, with more than 52 000 cases prioritised. Thousands of illegal liquor outlets have been shut down, and electronic systems for protection orders are being rolled out to make help faster and safer.
We are also localising the NSP. Over 40 GBVF Rapid Response Teams have been established across districts and municipalities. Through 100-Day Challenges and the national GBVF Dashboard, communities have shown that when we focus together, we can unblock cases, speed up protection orders and strengthen coordination in months, not years.
The private sector has also stepped forward. The GBVF Response Fund has mobilised resources from business and donors for shelters, community organisations and prevention programmes, and as a legacy project of our G20 Empowerment of Women Working Group our department, the GBVF Fund, the UK, the United Nations have come together to advance positive masculinity and community-level prevention.
Colleagues, this is real progress — but it is far from enough for a crisis of this magnitude. The President’s decision to classify GBVF as a national crisis must be a turning point: from uneven gains to emergency-level action, funding and coordination in every sphere of society. The question before us today is how the media, entertainment and film sectors will help us close that gap.
From ‘Sarafina!’ and protest theatre that carried the struggle into our classrooms, to ‘Yizo Yizo’, which forced an entire nation to confront violence in our schools;
From ‘Tsotsi’, which made the world grapple with the moral cost of inequality, to South African HIV/AIDS films like ‘Yesterday’, which helped families name stigma and seek treatment —
we have always been a country where stories save lives.
And this truth extends far beyond our borders.
Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up” became a global anthem for human rights.
Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam” shook the conscience of a nation in denial.
Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” became the heartbeat of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Black Eyed Peas’ “Where Is the Love?” forced the world to ask what we had become.
Hozier’s “Take Me to Church” challenged discrimination against LGBTQIA+ communities.
Michael Jackson’s “We Are the World” mobilised a humanitarian response that transcended borders.
And through the work of Global Citizen, music still mobilises millions into social action.
Here at home, art continues to carry our unfinished work:
Lefika La Phodiso uses community art therapy to help young people heal from trauma.
Ms Nonka Mbonambi, a South African muralist, paints the stories of women whose names were nearly erased — turning pavements into places of remembrance and resistance.
These examples remind us of one thing: art shapes belief, belief shapes behaviour, and behaviour shapes society. Your industry does not simply entertain — it sets the emotional and moral temperature of the nation.
And the data confirms this power. South Africans spend an average of 8 hours a day across TV, radio, streaming, news and social platforms. Prime-time shows reach millions each night. A single storyline can shift public conversation faster than any government circular. A single advertising campaign can teach norms that outlive its airtime. And a single harmful portrayal — repeated at scale — can reinforce beliefs that place women and girls at risk.
This is the scale of your influence. The question is: how do we now use that influence to confront a national crisis?
Government can strengthen laws, expand Thuthuzela Care Centres, deploy rapid-response teams, improve prosecution, and today we launch the NSP Review Report as a renewed blueprint.
But only you — the storytellers of this country — can change the cultural climate in which violence becomes thinkable.
To the captains of this industry — owners, CEOs, editors-in-chief, commissioners, broadcasters and regulators — this crisis demands more than goodwill. It requires clear, enforceable standards aligned with ICASA regulations and UNESCO’s global guidelines on harmful content and digital safety. We need an industry-wide GBVF portrayal and editorial code, proper harm-assessments for high-impact content, disciplined watershed and advert placement, and workplaces where women are safe, respected and protected. GBVF prevention cannot remain a side project; it must sit in your core governance, budgets and performance targets.
To the practitioners — writers, journalists, producers, directors, actors, editors, radio hosts, DJs, influencers and crew — your everyday decisions already teach this country what is normal. The headline you choose, the scene you frame, the language you allow, the advert you place after it: these choices shape how our children understand power, consent and masculinity. When you choose dignity, accuracy and accountability, you are doing more than storytelling — you are doing nation-building.
We must also shift how we protect. This industry must refuse tech-facilitated abuse, non-consensual imagery and deepfakes. We need watermarking, rapid takedowns, and survivor-first design across platforms. Sets must be safe — with strong intimacy coordination, real whistle-blower protections, and protocols that are implemented, not just written.
And finally, we must shift youth culture. Multi-season storylines must model healthy relationships. Reality formats must promote positive masculinities. And we must work with educators to ensure young people see content — on TV, radio, streaming and in Life Orientation classrooms — that teaches consent, online safety and stereotype-free storytelling. The norms they absorb now will determine the South Africa we become.
Colleagues, as I close, let me begin by saying thank you. Many of you are already doing important work — telling difficult stories with care, challenging harmful norms, giving survivors a voice. And I want to thank those of you who have travelled with us to the deep rural areas of South Africa. I have seen some of you on the ground with us — listening to families, witnessing trauma, hearing stories so painful they leave not only the community shaken, but all of us: social workers, departmental officials, camera operators, news anchors, and yes, even ministers — carrying the weight of that sorrow.
Last year, I asked myself a question that has never left me: with the limited resources we have, what more can one do? This fight against GBVF is one of the tasks that gives me sleepless nights. And that is why today, I call on you — my brothers and sisters — because government cannot shift this crisis alone. Laws and services matter, but may you can also help to change the cultural climate in which violence becomes thinkable.
To everyone here — editors, producers, advertisers, artists, faith leaders, teachers, parents, men and boys, and young people — let us make dignity, consent and accountability the norm in our homes, our workplaces, our streets and our screens. And to survivors: we see you, we believe you, and we will measure our success by whether your path to safety becomes shorter, kinder, and fully supported.
If we change what we make, we will change what we mirror. And if we change what we mirror, we will change what we become. Let us rewrite the script — and end GBVF.
It is now my honour to declare the 2025 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign officially open and the review of the National Strategic Plan launched.
I thank you, god bless you all and aluta continua!
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