FROM THE BLOG

The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu IP Trust will be closed for business on Friday in solidarity with Women for Change’s call on women and members of the LGBTQI+ community to demonstrate their economic muscle by doing no work and spending no money for the day.

It is an important call for advocacy from a South African perspective, where gender-based violence and femicide statistics attest to a societal plague, and also from a global perspective, to send a clear message to powerful misogynists, including those not attending the G20 Leader’s Summit, about the real-world impacts of their bullying prejudice.

The extent of Gender Based Violence is difficult to track due to the high proportion of incidents that go unreported. Even so, the South African numbers defy belief. 

Women for Change quotes Police Crime Statistics from April 2023 to March 2024 on its website, comparing them to the previous year.  A staggering 5 578 women and 1 656 children were killed, with femicide rising by 33.8% compared to the previous year. More than 42 500 rape cases were reported.

The late Archbishop Tutu was a firm ally of the women’s rights movement. Under his leadership, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa ordained its first women priests. The Tutu IP Trust is very fortunate to number one of those priests, who went on to become the first women Bishop, among its trustees.

But the Archbishop’s belief in gender equality went deeper than that. He believed that male dominance of global leadership positions was a key blockage to human solidarity and a key driver of the continuing destruction of the earth’s environment. According to the UN, only nineteen of the world’s 195 countries have a woman head of state; only 19% of the world’s CEOs are women (according to Grant Thronton).

Such profound imbalances underpin toxic masculinity.

In South Africa, the plague of Gender Based Violence reflects the abandoned healing journey of acknowledgement-and-forgiveness-with-redress that the new democracy embarked on 31 years ago. It is part of the unfinished business of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process. 

We are failing to raise boys to become fully emancipated men conscious of their responsibilities to the human family.

In this regard, the Tutu IP Trust and Foundation strongly associate themselves with the statement of the G20 Empowerment of Women Working Group on 31 October 2025: “Preventing and eliminating all forms of violence against all women and girls is not just about protecting individuals but about ensuring safe, inclusive, and prosperous societies for all, in which they can fully, equally and meaningfully participate and engage in economic activities without discrimination of any kind.”

* Dr Mamphela Ramphele: Chair of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust

* Ms Janet Jobson: CEO of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation

Ends…

For more information call Benny Gool 082 5566 556 / Roger Friedman 079 8966 899.