Women For Change used a massive casket to spotlight South Africa’s femicide surge - it worked

Women For Change is a South African non-profit organization focused on raising awareness and driving action against gender-based violence and femicide. A demonstration was held at the seat of Government, the Union Buildings in Pretoria, on 11 April 2025, aiming to pressure the government into declaring femicide a national disaster and accelerating implementation of the National Strategic Plan. To support this objective, a creative idea was needed to make the scale of the crisis tangible, highlight the lack of government response, and create an emotive response to mobilize public support for urgent and sustained policy reform.

Strategy

Our strategy focused on three key audiences: government decision makers, active civil society participants, and a broader public disengaged from the GBVF crisis.

Creative Solution

Insight: In South Africa funerals and death are held in high reverence. Funeral processions throughout the country are not only joined by loved ones but by neighbors far and wide as a public act of honoring the fallen.

Idea: So we built a casket 33.8% larger than a standard as a stark reflection of the sharp rise in femicide, and worked with local women’s groups to create an intricate beadwork shroud. Crafted using the tradition of Zulu symbols and beadwork, each of the beads represents a murdered woman. The casket was processioned in a Funeral March through the streets of Pretoria to the Union Buildings, the seat of Government in South Africa, a symbolic act of refusal to let the crisis remain buried.

Execution

We designed and produced a casket scaled up by 33.8% to reflect the annual rise in femicide. This was then covered in a beadwork shroud of black, white, and purple beads. Each of the 5,578 purple beads represented a woman murdered in the past year.

The casket interior was lined with images of victims and a QR code linking to an interactive website which allowed the public to explore content on the crisis and features the biographies of dozens of murdered women.

As part of the demonstration, the casket was transported in a funeral procession by bead artists and the victims’ families.

A printed memorandum and 180,000 petition signatures was placed inside the casket, demanding femicide be declared a national disaster.

We launched a purple-avatar social media campaign to build solidarity and participation online. Secured national media coverage, including live broadcast of the protest and post-event amplification.

Results

180,000+ people signed the petition demanding that femicide be declared a national disaster—one of the largest public responses to a GBVF campaign in recent years.

On the day of the protest, the memorandum to declare femicide a national emergency in South Africa signed by the Deputy Minister for Women and less than a week later the government announced a 90-day blitz on femicide and gender-based violence.

The campaign sparked national and global attention, reaching over 173 million people, generating more than 890 pieces of media coverage. It became the No. 1 trending topic on X in South Africa, amplifying public pressure on government leaders to act.

With a return on investment of more than 75:1, the campaign proved that powerful, culturally resonant protest can not only cut through media fatigue but also mobilize widespread support and drive political urgency on one of the country’s most persistent and devastating crises.

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