Women should get time off work to protest‚ say #TheTotalShutdown organisers

The organisers of the #TheTotalShutdown want South African employers to give women time off work to attend Wednesday's nationwide marches.

The movement‚ which started on social media to mobilise against gender-based violence‚ has released a letter for women to submit to their employers.

In the letter‚ the movement explained that‚ on Wednesday‚ women from all backgrounds "seek to bring national attention to‚ and demand sustainable action against‚ gender-based violence that is escalating" by presenting a memorandum at the Union Buildings in Pretoria‚ Parliament in Cape Town and the Supreme Court of Appeals in Bloemfontein.

Other women-only marches are also expected to take place in other towns and cities.

"We are‚ therefore‚ requesting the support of all employers to support this movement by allowing women and gender nonconforming persons time away to participate in #TheTotalShutdown marches across the country without financial penalty‚” the organisers wrote.

"Furthermore‚ we humbly request that all essential workers who must be at work on this day be permitted to take a break from 1pm to 1.30pm in order to participate in a national moment in solidarity against gender based violence‚" the movement's task team said in the letter.

The movement's spokesperson Lucy Bowles told TimesLIVE that there was a need to give the letter to employers because #TheTotalShutdown did not seek to prejudice the employment of the women it called upon to march.

"This march is designed for all women and gender nonconforming folks‚ many of whom are domestic workers or employed in the retail industry where leave is not easily acquired‚ and the low wages do not even allow for unpaid leave to become an option‚" she further explained.

Bowles could not predict the number of women who would join the marches.

"We cannot predict the numbers on the ground because this is an unusual protest where the interests at stake are the lives of women‚ children‚ LBTQI+ and gender nonconforming individuals.

"We would love for the numbers to be sky high‚ that much is obvious. But the dynamics of many women disallows them to come to the ground and march alongside of us. And even so‚ just because they are not marching‚ does not mean they are not in solidarity."