In South Africa 1 in every 5 women is a victim of domestic violence.
In fact, the President called it our Second Pandemic.
Sadly, legislation protecting women can take years to pass.
In 2018, three important bills were gazetted with the intention of protecting women and children, but by 2020, they were still not passed into law.
Joko the tea brand that empowers women to #EndDomesticSilence,
knew it had to play its part, to help get the legislation passed sooner.
During the national 16 Days of Activism campaign in November 2020, we asked South Africans to
‘Add Your Voice’.
Instead of petitioning with signatures, citizens joined our innovative voicenote petition, recording their voices on the Joko page and imploring the presidency to act sooner on these laws. They also made their voices heard on radio and social media.
Activists got on board joining the chorus, as did some of SA’s biggest brands.
Our collective voices clearly had an impact as Joko was invited by the Presidency to meet.
There we submitted South Africa’s first voice note petition to the dignitaries in attendance.
And were unexpectedly acknowledged by government for our role in helping end GBV.
Then in 2021 something incredible happened, the three bills were passed during a sitting of parliament on Thursday the 3rd June. A small step in the right direction. To help #EndDomesticSilence
