Letsike Calls for Cultural Reset as SA Launches 2025 16 Days GBVF Campaign

Addressing a hall of policymakers, activists, filmmakers, youth leaders and civil society organisations, Letsike urged the nation to confront the crisis with honesty, courage and collective responsibility.

 

South Africa must urgently overhaul its national response to Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) and fundamentally shift how the country understands, prevents and portrays violence. This was the powerful message delivered by Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Mmapaseka Steve Letsike, at the launch of the 2025 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign in Midrand on Tuesday.

Addressing a hall of policymakers, activists, filmmakers, youth leaders and civil society organisations, Letsike urged the nation to confront the crisis with honesty, courage and collective responsibility. She warned that symbolic outrage and short-term condemnation cannot address the deep and evolving trauma affecting millions of women and children.

A Harsh Reality: “A Nation in Mourning and Determination”

“We gather this morning not as spectators to a crisis, but as a nation in mourning, in anger, and in determination,” Letsike said. “We refuse to normalise this storm. We refuse to raise another generation on inherited trauma.”

The Deputy Minister began her address with sobering data that reflects the scale of South Africa’s GBVF emergency:

• A woman is killed by an intimate partner or family member every three hours.

• Only a fraction of rape survivors report the crime: during a ten-minute speech, statistics suggest just one survivor formally reports, while 14 to 18 women are likely assaulted during the same timeframe.

• Teenage pregnancy remains alarming, with more than 102 000 births among girls aged 10 to 19 in 2023, often linked to abuse, coercion or statutory rape.

Letsike stressed that the statistics fail to capture the full extent of gendered violence, especially forms that remain hidden or minimised.

“These numbers do not reflect the totality of abuses such as psychological torture, emotional manipulation, economic violence, hate crimes against LGBTI persons, cultural oppression, controlling behaviours, and domestic servitude. This reality is not sustainable – something has to give,” she said.

Creativity as Prevention: Rewriting the Cultural Script

This year’s theme, “Rewriting the Script: Harnessing Film, Arts and Media to Prevent GBVF,” puts South Africa’s creative industries at the centre of prevention efforts. Letsike said storytelling remains one of the most powerful tools shaping how society views masculinity, femininity, conflict and relationships.

“Before a man ever raises his hand, violence is written into the script of his childhood,” she said. “It is rehearsed through the jokes he hears, normalised through the music he consumes, justified through the films he watches, and reinforced by the silences of other men.”

She recounted a conversation at the Boys’ Parliament in the Western Cape, where a teenage boy told her he had never seen a male character apologise on television. That moment, she said, captured the profound impact representation has on shaping young minds.

“When boys grow up consuming violent male heroes, they learn to become violent men. When girls grow up watching women silenced or erased, they learn to downplay their own worth.”

Institutions such as the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), SABC, Film and Publications Board, and CCIFSA were urged to champion inclusive, responsible and affirming storytelling that dismantles harmful norms rather than reinforcing them.

NSP Review: Prevention Must Become Policy, Not Rhetoric

The Deputy Minister noted that the launch coincides with the release of the five-year review of the National Strategic Plan (NSP) on GBVF, which outlines areas requiring urgent reform and improved execution.

Key priorities highlighted include:

• strengthening policing and community safety structures

• embedding consent and bodily autonomy education in schools

• expanding psychosocial and justice support for survivors

• ensuring perpetrators face consequences swiftly and consistently

• building prevention frameworks rooted in positive masculinity and community accountability

“This campaign is not about women raising their voices louder,” Letsike said. “It is about men finally lowering their fists.”

Linking Global Momentum to Local Change

The 2025 programme integrates commitments from the G20 High-Level Dialogue on GBVF, which emphasises transforming harmful gender norms, empowering boys and men to become allies, and aligning justice systems with survivor-centred principles.

Hosted by Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga, the launch brought together leaders from across the creative industries, academia, international organisations and civic groups to co-develop solutions that address the cultural roots of violence—not only its consequences.

From Symbolic Activism to Sustained Action

Letsike concluded with an appeal for the country to move beyond seasonal outrage and into a year-round, sustained campaign for safety and justice.

“We are done with symbolism and performative outrage,” she said. “Let us make these 16 days a spark and the remaining 349 days the work.”

With South Africa facing some of the highest GBVF rates in the world, the 2025 campaign marks a renewed effort to unite government, communities, creative industries and the justice system in rewriting the country’s cultural and social narrative—one that affirms dignity, equality and accountability.