A community united by grief and outrage took to the streets on Friday as students from Nelson Mandela University and local activists marched to demand concrete action against gender-based violence, a crisis claiming the lives of an estimated 15 women every day in South Africa.
The day of action began with a student-led march from the university to City Hall to deliver a memorandum. The students voiced a profound sense of insecurity that permeates both their on-campus residences and off-campus living spaces.
“We decided to do this march in respect to the events that have occurred within the institution. The events that have occurred within the institution are very devastating,” said a student representative. “We stand together to show solidarity.”
The fear felt by the student body was recently intensified by the death of a student. Students are now openly questioning whether enough is being done to protect them. Many pointed to off-campus housing, often lacking proper security, as a particular area of vulnerability.
A student identifying as an off-campus leader expressed deep frustration with the institutional response. “We have a lot of issues here… the problem is that our [residence] managers, even the institution itself, it does not take these things into context,” the student said. “Even now we had a student commit suicide due to the fact that her perpetrator is still allowed to be on campus… They send us emails… But there’s no work actually being done.”
Following the student march, the community joined the nationwide Women for Change GBV Shutdown, a protest movement demanding the government treat femicide and violence against women as a national crisis.
A spokesperson for the activists highlighted the staggering statistic from Women for Change. “There’s 15 women killed every day in South Africa. So we are here today to support all of them, to be in union, to be in solidarity,” the spokesperson said. “We are aiming to declare gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa a national crisis. We actually managed to do that yesterday by the president also declaring it a national crisis. Now we need action.”
The protest was a personal and painful reckoning for survivors like M. Potgieter, who shared her story to underscore the systemic failures. She described a violent attack that left her with physical and deep emotional scars.
“That was a very traumatic experience. I wear the scars on my forehead. I got a cut in my eye, broken coccyx, almost drowned in bath water, and I survived it now 23 years,” Potgieter stated. She credited her survival to her faith and support network but criticized a system that offered little help, leaving her to heal without answers or justice.
The dual actions—from the university grounds to the national shutdown—painted a picture of a community and a nation at a tipping point. While the president’s recent declaration of gender-based violence as a national crisis was acknowledged as a first step, the overwhelming message from Nelson Mandela Bay was a demand for immediate and tangible action to end the everyday threat faced by women across South Africa.