NEHAWU Statement On International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
Tuesday November 25, 2025
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] joins the international community in recognising the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
The International Day is recognised annually on the 25th of November and it is a campaign geared towards preventing and eliminating violence against women and children.
In recognising this important day, NEHAWU joins our militant, class-orientated international federation of trade unions, the World Federation of Trade Unions [WFTU] in its struggle for a world free from violence, exploitation and war.
Hence, we join the clarion call of WFTU: “80 years of international trade union struggle – Stop violence, exploitation and war. Safety, dignity and equality for all women”.
As NEHAWU, we agree with the WFTU when it asserts that the violence against women is never an individual or private matter and is rooted in the power structures of capitalism, economic and social inequalities, patriarchal culture and the militarisation of territories.
As we mark this day, women continues to face systemic oppression, exclusion and discrimination. Women are in a constant struggle against power-relations that continue to be perpetuated by patriarchy and are daily confronted with the scourge of gender based violence, femicide, rape, and violence which continues to be on the rise.
Indeed, as progressives, we must prioritise the struggle to eliminate violence directed at women and children and further condemn violence against women. We can no longer stand by and watch such atrocities occurring in our communities and wish to register that all forms of violence directed at women and children have no place in our society.
As NEHAWU, we stand in solidarity with women across the world in the struggle to eliminate violence directed at them, more in particular Palestinian Women and Children, who are subjected to the worst form of violence and human rights violations by the murderous Israeli regime.
We want to reiterate our pledge to deepen our level of consciousness and activism in the struggle for gender and women's emancipation as well as intensifying the fight against gender based violence, femicide, rape and violence directed at women and children.
Lastly, as NEHAWU, we call on society to support International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the campaign of 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence. Let us unite and fight the scourge of gender based violence, femicide, rape and violence directed at women and children.
END
Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat
Zola Saphetha (General Secretary) at 082 558 5968;
December Mavuso (Deputy General Secretary) at 082 558 5969;
Lwazi Nkolonzi (NEHAWU National Spokesperson) at 081 558 2335 or email: lwazin@nehawu.org.za
Visit https://www.nehawu.org.za
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