GBV battle: beyond hashtags, marches and headlines

The resistance flickered through an accrual of small surrenders

- APHELELE MTWECU

IT’S DEEPLY unsettling how social media has amplified awareness of gender-based violence in South Africa, becoming a catalyst in GBV cases and carving new pathways for processing these tragedies.

Our digital timeline of national trauma unfolds like episodes in a series we never wanted to watch. In 2019, our feeds were filled with images of Uyinene Mrwetyana’ bright smile as we learned of her brutal murder. A year later came headlines about Tshegofatso Pule, eight months pregnant, found in Roodepoort. In 2023, we mourned Namhla Mtwa through painful updates shared across platforms. Now in 2025, our TikTok pages update us on the rape case of the seven-year-old girl from Matatiele, in the Eastern Cape.

The digital spaces have become forums of witness and pathways to justice where stories surface and voices join in solidarity. Our platforms now serve as both everyday connection spaces and last resorts for families seeking justice when traditional systems fail them. Through this wave, we've learned names otherwise lost to statistics - women whose stories reached us through hashtags, whose lives mattered enough for us to carry their memory from screens to streets.

Before tweets and Instagram stories capture public attention, there’s always the raw reality of each case. A daughter, sister, or friend doesn’t return home, becomes another entry in the SAPS database. Those close to the loved one report to the police, complete forms and follow every procedure. And then, they wait ... and wait ... and wait.

The Sonke Gender Justice annual report shows prosecution rates for GBV crimes remain under 8%. These numbers represent thousands of cases where justice remains elusive, demonstrating how our system fails those it claims to defend.