JOHANNESBURG: South Africa said on Friday the rate of violence against women in the country was a national disaster, as thousands protested to highlight the problem ahead of this weekend’s G20 summit of world leaders.
The country has one of the world’s highest rates of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), leading to deaths five times higher than the global average, according to the United Nations’s gender equality organization UN Women.
In one of dozens of “lie-in” protests countrywide, thousands of people dressed in black lay on the ground for 15 minutes at an event in Johannesburg’s city center, just a few kilometers (miles) from the venue where G20 leaders will meet on Saturday and Sunday.
Organizers said the action was to honor the 15 women murdered every day in South Africa.
A 2022 government survey found that one in three South African women had experienced physical violence and almost 10 percent had faced sexual violence.
