Women’s group exposes the holiday surge in GBVF while police take a break
GBVF Activism
1000 Women Trust is done waiting for promises. This holiday season, they’re demanding justice, even if they have to drag it from the courthouse steps themselves.
Image: Tumi Pakkies/ Independent Newspapers
WHILE the rest of South Africa unwinds for the festive season, women in communities across the Free State are steeling themselves for what has become an annual nightmare: a deadly spike in gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) and femicide.
And this year, a bold women-led movement is refusing to let the state hide behind seasonal cheer.
Enter 1000 Women Trust, a South African women’s rights organisation pulling no punches with the launch of its Beyond 16 Days initiative, an unflinching campaign that exposes what it calls “the weakest links in the GBVF-response chain” precisely when they’re most needed: during the holiday period.
“The 16 Days of Activism might spotlight the crisis,” co-founder of 1000 Women Trust Tina Thiart said, “but the real test, the real horror, begins after the awareness campaigns end.”
Thiart did not mince words: “In the holiday period in South Africa, there is a sharp increase in gender-based violence and femicide due to alcohol abuse, stress, and a weakened service delivery by the police and the judiciary.”
And it’s not just anecdotal. Shelters are understaffed. Social services vanish. Police stations go silent. “Survivors are left without recourse and increasing risk and trauma,” she said.
This year, that silence has turned lethal.
In the Letjweleputswa district, three women: Mpho Gladys Nkhobo (46), Glenda Roberts (61), and Masesi Merriam Saudi, were brutally murdered during or just after the 16 Days of Activism. Nkhobo was stabbed by her husband in Matjhabeng. Roberts, a seasoned social worker, was mugged and stabbed on her way to work in Welkom. Saudi went missing while walking to her job in Thabong and was later found murdered.
“These are not isolated tragedies,” ambassador for 1000 Women Trust Cynthia Khumalo said. “The Bothaville, Henneman, Odendaalsrus, Welkom and Bultfontein areas are hot spots of gender-based violence and femicide.”
The statistics back it up. The Free State recorded the second-highest rape ratio in the country at 24.4%, with alarming spikes in sexual assaults during recent quarters.
Thiart’s indictment of state institutions was scathing: “The police and the courts are often the weakest links in the GBVF response chain due to slow investigations, poor survivor treatment, and low conviction rates undermining trust.”
In response, 1000 Women Trust is mobilising. On Thursday, December 18, members will picket at the magistrate’s court in Welkom at 10am, demanding accountability from law enforcement for recent femicides.
And the pressure will not stop there. On Friday, December 19, the organisation’s Gauteng committee will descend on the Kagiso police station to confront authorities over the unresolved disappearance of a child who vanished in June 2024, last seen with both her biological and stepmother.
Despite systemic neglect, 1000 Women Trust has built a lifeline: a network of more than 50 “warriors stationed in GBVF hotspots, offering immediate support to survivors. These volunteers provide safe spaces, accompany victims to police stations, and ensure they appear in court the next day — tasks the state has abandoned.
But they can’t do it alone: “Our call to action is that communities must help us by reporting service failures by the police, courts or clinics,” Thiart said. “We also ask the public to support our safe room service by volunteering to help or donating goods to the safe rooms.”
She also called on citizens to “amplify the voices of survivors and share them on WhatsApp, radio or community platforms.”
Beyond 16 Days isn’t just a local outcry; it’s part of a global campaign running until January 10, 2026, and a direct extension of the group’s RememberHER initiative, which this year commemorated the lives of 5 778 women killed by femicide between April 2023 and March 2024.
“If South Africans do not act in unison, these figures will increase,” Thiart cautioned. “We must eradicate the second pandemic, but we need a unified front in order to make it happen, and that is why Beyond 16 Days is critical.”
The government declared GBVF a national disaster. Yet during the very season meant for joy and family, the system abandons women to fear, violence, and death.
1000 Women Trust is done waiting for promises. This holiday season, they’re demanding justice — even if they have to drag it from the courthouse steps themselves.