The personal is political: A cry for justice in a time of terror

September in South Africa should be a month of renewal: a time to build on the momentum of Women’s Month and honour the legacy of those who marched in 1956, demanding dignity, safety and equality.

Yet in 2026, the month has been stained by fresh horrors: a suspected serial killer targeting women in Johannesburg, and a video of a wealthy businessman storming into a women’s restroom, threatening to kill those inside while boasting that his status would shield him from consequences. In a country where between six and fifteen women are murdered every day, and where intimate-partner femicide rates are five times the global average, it is easy to fall into despair.

But African women have never surrendered to despair. From the market traders of Lagos to the student activists of Nairobi, from the grandmothers of Soweto to the digital organisers of Cape Town, we must turn grief into strategy and rage into revolution. Our message must be clear: the personal is political, and the political must change.

The statistics are staggering, yet they represent individual lives cut short:

• Between April and June 2026 alone, 569 women were murdered in South Africa, roughly six per day.
• Another 1,052 women survived attempted murders in the same period.
• Over the 2023–2024 financial year, 5,578 women were reported murdered. That’s roughly 15 per day.
• Intimate-partner femicide in South Africa is five times the global rate, with 60% of murdered women killed by someone they knew.
• An estimated 95% of rape cases go unreported, and nearly half of reported rapes occur in domestic settings.

These are not abstract figures. They are mothers, daughters, sisters and friends; women who went to work, visited a hotel, or simply walked home and never returned.

African women’s activism: From protest to power

African feminists have long understood that violence against women is not a private tragedy but a systemic crisis rooted in patriarchy, inequality, and impunity. Their activism reflects this understanding:

• Collective Care as Resistance: In 2026, African feminist movements explicitly centre healing and wellbeing, recognising that “the personal is political” means caring for the self, the community, and the movement itself. As the African Feminist Forum and regional platforms have argued, sustainable activism requires care communities that nurture those on the frontlines.
• Demanding Accountability, Not Empty Promises: Despite South Africa declaring gender-based violence a national disaster in late 2025, activists note that Women’s Month 2026 feels hollow without concrete action. Protests, marches and solidarity actions continue; but so do the killings.
• Centring Marginalised Voices: African women activists insist that responses to GBV must address intersecting oppressions: poverty, race, class and geography. The women most at risk are often those least protected by the state: informal workers, migrants, and those in townships and rural areas.
• Reframing the Narrative: Rather than accepting victimhood, African feminists frame GBV as a political emergency demanding international outrage. As one editorial put it, this is not a “localised anomaly” but a “systemic slaughter.”

What must we do? A feminist call to action

In the face of such violence, African women activists offer not despair but direction. Their demands are clear:

1. End Impunity: The businessman who threatened women in a hotel restroom must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, regardless of his wealth or connections. Impunity for the powerful signals that some lives matter less than others.
2. Transform Institutions: Police, courts and social services must be reformed to prioritise women’s safety. This includes gender-disaggregated data, specialised units and survivor-centred protocols.
3. Invest in Prevention: GBV cannot be addressed only after the fact. Funding must flow to education, economic empowerment and community-based programmes that challenge patriarchal norms.
4. Centre Care and Healing: As African feminist movements emphasise, activism must be sustainable. Care communities, mental health support, and collective healing are not luxuries. They are necessities for long-term struggle.
5. Amplify Women’s Voices: From grassroots organisers to national leaders, women must be at the centre of policy design and implementation. Their lived experience is expertise.

A September of possibility

September may feel marred by horror, but it also holds the seeds of transformation. African women have always been the architects of change, from the anti-apartheid struggle to the #TotalShutDown movement to today’s digital campaigns. They know that the personal is political: every threat, every murder, every act of survival is part of a larger fight for justice.

As feminists and social justice activists, we must ask not only what we should do, but what we must do. The answer lies in following the lead of African women: organise, demand, care, and never surrender. Their lives depend on it.

References

1. Fostering Care Communities Within African Women’s Movements: Shifting Movement Culture Toward Liberation and Justice Through Collective Care and Healing. Journal of Human Rights Practice, Oxford Academic, June 4, 2026.  https://academic.oup.com/jhrp/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jhuman/huag001/8701503
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