CIVICUS discusses civil society’s campaign against gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide with Sabrina Walter, founder and executive director of Women For Change, a South African civil society organisation that works to end violence against women and children.

South Africa has one of the world’s highest femicide rates, roughly five times the global average. In January 2025, Women For Change launched a petition calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to classify GBV and femicide as a national disaster. It gathered over 1.1 million signatures, and in November people turned their social media profiles purple in what became known as the Purple Movement. On 20 November, Ramaphosa announced the classification, a decision meant to unlock emergency funding and enable a coordinated response.

How did the Purple Movement start?

For years, government leaders had described GBV and femicide as a pandemic or a crisis, but that recognition never translated into the systemic change South Africa desperately needed. Although we had already documented over 2,000 femicide cases and shared the stories behind them, we were still not seeing meaningful action.

So, in January 2025, we launched a petition calling on President Ramaphosa to declare GBV and femicide a national disaster and ensure a coordinated national response proportional to the scale and urgency of the crisis. More than 1.1 million people signed the petition, and over 750,000 changed their profile pictures to purple, united by the belief that women’s lives matter.

That is what became known as the Purple Movement, a campaign against GBV and femicide that began online and spread into businesses, communities and schools. Celebrities used their platforms to raise awareness, businesses changed their branding to purple and landmarks including the Nelson Mandela Bridge and Table Mountain were lit up in solidarity. Together with the G20 Women’s Shutdown and sustained national advocacy, it turned public support into pressure the government could no longer ignore. Millions of people in South Africa and around the world came together with one message: enough is enough.

What has this campaign taught you about digital activism?

It works best when it has a clear purpose, rather than when it chases viral moments. We’ve focused on telling human stories with dignity and respect, explaining complex issues in plain language and creating opportunities for people to act. That is what people have engaged with. Our content has been seen over two billion times, and we have never spent a cent on advertising or marketing.

The same thinking extends beyond social media. Our website is now a free educational resource, with a GBV and femicide glossary of more than 70 terms covering gender, the justice system, the law and survivor-centred language, alongside practical guides for survivors, their families and the public.

Information alone is not enough, though. People in crisis need to reach someone, so last March we launched our Survivor Support Line on WhatsApp, the platform survivors and families already use. Reaching out for help is hard enough, and we didn’t want them to have to navigate a complicated system or download another app first. In the first three months, our support specialists responded to over 30,000 messages, showing the value of building support around people’s real needs.

Technology is not a solution on its own, but combined with a clear purpose, empathy and trust, it can help people find each other, organise and turn shared values into collective action.

What resistance have you faced?

Any movement that challenges systems of power should expect resistance, and ours has been no exception. We’ve faced criticism, legal threats, misinformation, online abuse and repeated attempts to discredit our organisation and our advocacy. That takes a toll people rarely see.

These challenges have reinforced why the work matters. If calling for women and children to live safely is considered controversial, that says far more about our society than it does about those asking for it.

But we haven’t been alone. Our community has stood beside us throughout and kept us going. We have received support from legal professionals, members of the public, mental health practitioners, survivors and people who have simply sent messages of encouragement. Their solidarity is a reminder that this movement has never belonged to one person or one organisation. It belongs to everyone who believes women and children deserve to live free from violence.

What will it take to turn the classification into real change?

The classification was never the finish line. It was the starting point. South Africa already has many good policies and strategies around GBV and femicide. What survivors need now is for those policies to be implemented, and quickly.

That change must be visible in people’s daily lives. Women should not have to wait years for cases to reach court, and police stations must function properly. Many police stations in Cape Town don’t even have rape kits available. Prevention programmes need sustained investment, and government departments must be held accountable for measurable outcomes rather than promises.

Civil society organisations also need long-term funding. Every day, organisations across the country are filling gaps that should not exist, often with limited resources and enormous demand.

Ultimately, success will not be measured by the classification itself, but by whether fewer women are murdered, survivors receive support and justice, and women feel safe in their communities, homes, schools and workplaces.

CIVICUS interviews a wide range of civil society activists, experts and leaders to gather diverse perspectives on civil society action and current issues for publication on its CIVICUS Lens platform. The views expressed in interviews are the interviewees’ and do not necessarily reflect those of CIVICUS. Publication does not imply endorsement of interviewees or the organisations they represent.