Africa’s purple revolution dominates social media

THOUSANDS of women across South Africa are participating in the purple initiative, changing their profile pictures to purple to show support for courage, unity, and resistance against gender-based violence.

- PHIRI CAWE

The campaign has gained widespread attention on social media, with participants using the colour purple to make a public statement against injustice.

They're calling it Women for Change - a movement born out of pain, powered by outrage, and sustained by hope.

Today, November 21, women across the country plan to shut down South Africa by dressing in black and marching in silence against gender-based violence. The call is clear: Declare gender-based violence a national disaster.

According to police, in the past year, 5 578 women were murdered in South Africa, a 33.8% increase from the previous year. The country's femicide rate is six times higher than the global average, according to police.

Behind each figure is a name, a face, a family - and a nation haunted by violence it can no longer ignore.