South Africa’s media and creative industries have been called to the frontlines of the fight against gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF).

Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities, Sindisiwe Chikunga, is urging these organisations to use their platforms to challenge harmful norms and reshape public attitudes.

Speaking at the national launch of the 2025 16 Days of Activism campaign at Gallagher Convention Centre, Chikunga said the sector held unmatched power to ‘flip the script’ on narratives that normalise violence, especially during a period when GBVF rates remained alarmingly high.

Read more: Minister urges media to ‘rewrite the script’ on GBVF as 16 Days campaign launches in Midrand

She stressed that the campaign should be more than an annual symbol, calling for accountability and collective action under this year’s theme: Letsema: Men, Women, Boys and Girls Working Together to End GBVF, with a sub-theme highlighting the role of arts and media in prevention.

Chikunga noted that the G20 Leaders’ Declaration adopted in Johannesburg recently reaffirmed a global commitment to ending violence against women and girls. “Our task now is to implement it boldly at home,” she said.

With the South African Police Service data showing tens of thousands of sexual offences reported annually, she warned that sensationalist reporting and glamorised violent masculinity continued to reinforce harmful gender norms. “Narrative is infrastructure,” she said. “Stories shape what society sees as normal.”

The minister also launched the Five-Year Review of the National Strategic Plan on GBVF, which reports progress, including 66 Thuthuzela Care Centres, more than 1 100 victim-friendly rooms, 1 200 SAPS GBVF desks, and a cleared DNA backlog with 52 000 cases prioritised. More than 40 district and municipal rapid-response teams have also been established.

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However, she warned that efforts remained insufficient for a crisis of this scale and said President Cyril Ramaphosa’s classification of GBVF as a national crisis must trigger ’emergency-level action, funding, and coordination’.

Chikunga called for an industry-wide GBVF Portrayal and Editorial Code, stricter content controls, safeguards for whistle-blowers, and storylines that normalise dignity, consent, and healthy masculinity. “Only you, the storytellers of this country, can change the cultural climate in which violence becomes thinkable.”

She closed by appealing to communities, including teachers, parents, men, and boys, to model accountability and dignity while also honouring survivors, saying government success would be measured by whether their path to justice becomes ‘shorter, kinder, and fully supported’.

The event formally marked the opening of the 2025 16 Days of Activism campaign.

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