Operation Watershed, a civil society initiative mobilising South Africans overseas, will stage a protest in Trafalgar Sq., London, on Saturday, 26 April 2025, in solidarity with the Justice for CweCwe motion and in unequivocal condemnation of the escalating gender-based violence (GBV) disaster in South Africa.
The demonstration requires pressing, decisive motion from the South African authorities and worldwide consideration to what has grow to be one in all the nation’s most pervasive human rights violations.
CWECWE HORRIFIC CASE
The protest was catalysed by the current, horrific case of Cwecwe, a seven-year-old lady who was reportedly raped – a crime that has shocked the nation, leading to giant protests throughout main cities, and reigniting pressing calls for for GBV to be declared a nationwide emergency.
Her title joins a rising record of victims whose ache continues to reveal the systemic failures in South Africa’s strategy to gender-based violence.
Regardless of the implementation of the Nationwide Strategic Plan on GBVF in 2020, South Africa stays one of the vital harmful nations on the earth to be a lady or little one.
Between July and September 2024, there have been 13 283 sexual offences reported, together with 10 590 rapes.
These numbers don’t replicate the total extent of the disaster, with estimates suggesting that as much as 95% of sexual assaults are by no means reported, typically because of concern, stigma, and a scarcity of belief within the justice system.
“The federal government is failing GBV survivors by means of underfunded and inadequate entry to providers, a justice system that hardly ever delivers, and a police and healthcare response that usually fails to help or defend them,” stated Elias Mtshweni, one in all diaspora mobilisers.
Scenario is dire
Operation Watershed are in full help of the decision for Gender Based mostly Violence and Femicide to be declared a nationwide emergency.
The state of affairs is dire.
Within the 2023/2024 interval, South Africa recorded the murders of 5 578 ladies, with a 33.8% enhance in femicide, in line with advocacy group Ladies for Change.
Between April 2023 and March 2024, an common of 117 rapes had been reported every day.
For comparability, homicide statistics stood at 72 per day – a stark indication of the acute and disproportionate violence confronted by ladies and women.
Earlier this month, on 11 April 2025, Ladies for Change led a mass march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, delivering a memorandum and petition signed by over 150 000 individuals, calling for speedy motion and accountability from the South African authorities.
Operation Watershed’s demonstration is aligned with these calls for and goals to amplify the voices of the numerous survivors and advocates throughout South Africa and the diaspora.
Activist and occasion organiser, Nomonde Joya stated, “There’s an pressing want for a complete and systemic motion plan to guard essentially the most weak; starting with youngsters who are sometimes the primary to endure the devastating, life altering penalties of this tragedy, robbed of their innocence far too quickly.”
The demonstration is being supported by members of the South African diaspora in the UK and has already garnered backing from political events inside South Africa.
Protest organisers are working collaboratively with politicians, civil society organisations, advocacy teams, and charitable foundations – each in South Africa and internationally – to develop a complete memorandum.
This doc will define pressing calls for, together with the strengthened enforcement of GBV laws, elevated and sustained funding for survivor help providers, obligatory specialised coaching for police and healthcare personnel, and the formal declaration of gender-based violence as a nationwide state of catastrophe.
Organisers are dedicated to making sure that the method is inclusive and consultant of numerous voices and lived experiences.
They’re actively partaking with Members of Parliament upfront of the memorandum’s submission to the Nationwide Authorities.
This initiative serves not solely as a name to motion for policymakers, but in addition as a robust reminder to all South Africans – at house and overseas – of their collective accountability to carry elected leaders accountable and to demand justice, safety, and dignity for all.
“As Freedom Day approaches, we should confront the cruel reality: there isn’t any actual freedom whereas ladies and youngsters stay beneath the fixed menace of violence. This isn’t solely a gender challenge – it’s a nationwide ethical failure,” emphasised Hayley Reichert, founding father of Operation Watershed.
Members of the general public are urged to attend the protest at Trafalgar Sq. on 26 April at 10:30.
Convey your voice, your presence, and your unwavering demand for justice.
We face a nationwide emergency – silence is complicity, and inaction prices lives.
Now could be the time to rise, silence is now not an choice.
Will you be attending the protest?
Tell us by leaving a remark under, or ship a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1
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