Protesters stage sit-in at JSE over gender crime

Hundreds of protesters staged a sit-in at the entrance to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to call for an end to gender-based violence in South Africa.

The demonstration, which began before dawn on Friday, disrupted traffic in the country’s main economic hub of Sandton. It’s the latest in a series of protests triggered by the rape and murder of a 19-year-old university student in Cape Town last month.

Crime statistics released on Thursday show 2 771 women were murdered in South Africa in the 12 months through March. The number of reported rapes rose 3.9% to 41,583 in the period.

Read: Horror of SA’s gender-based violence revealed in report

Woman murdered every three hours in South Africa stokes protests

PICS: #SandtonShutDown Thousands gathering at JSE in protest against gender-based violence | @BraGrobbies https://t.co/sNckuGSM7L pic.twitter.com/8HNBwbc1oo

— News24 (@News24) September 13, 2019

The organisers of the protest, a group of civil-rights organizations known as Call-to-Action, called for businesses in Sandton to shut down for the day in support of their cause.

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