Members of #TheTotalShutdown movement gathered outside Parliament in Cape Town to raise awareness on the scourge of gender-based violence facing women, children and gender non-conforming persons in South Africa on Thursday. They have called it a national crisis.

A group of about 50 women gathered outside the gates of Parliament to hang up 3,915 red and black ribbons symbolising the number of women and children who died in gender-based violence in the 2017/2018 financial year.

“Women are under attack in South Africa,” said Zintle Olayi, the Western Cape spokesperson for #TheTotalShutdown movement against gender-based violence.

The ribbon-hanging was a part of a first-anniversary commemoration ceremony of #TheTotalShutdown protest which took place on the same date in 2018. In that demonstration, more than 200 people marched to Parliament in Cape Town where a memorandum of 24 demands was handed over to the Presidency.

“Sex workers are here, helping us and standing in solidarity with us. And we partner and work a lot with SWEAT,” said Olayi.

The Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force (SWEAT) is one of a number of organisations under…