The National Business Initiative is mobilising companies to strengthen workplace interventions, fund prevention and support services, and build partnerships aimed at tackling gender-based violence across South Africa.
The renewed call follows the discovery of nine women’s bodies across Ekurhuleni over the past two months, with police deploying a multidisciplinary team to investigate the cases. Authorities have cautioned against assuming that all the deaths are connected while investigations continue.
For the NBI, the deaths reinforce the need to move beyond awareness campaigns and translate commitments on gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) into practical interventions.
The business coalition says companies have both a responsibility and an opportunity to contribute resources, strengthen workplace responses and support organisations working directly with women and communities.
Over the past five years, the NBI says it has worked with business leaders and organisations across sectors to encourage action against GBVF.
Its wider social transformation programme includes gender equity, disability and social inclusion, with addressing gender-based violence forming part of its Transformation Blueprint.
“Good intentions, while necessary, are insufficient. Awareness without action is inadequate. Commitments without accountability will not end this crisis,” the NBI said.
The organisation is calling for stronger collaboration between employers, law enforcement agencies, community organisations, policymakers and civil society.
This includes mobilising resources for prevention and response services, strengthening workplace interventions and ensuring women can access appropriate support when experiencing violence.
The call comes as government and the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide intensify their response to the Ekurhuleni killings.
The Council has called for stronger prevention, protection, survivor support and justice measures, while government says additional legal and institutional interventions are being implemented to strengthen the national response to GBVF.
For businesses, workplace action can form an important part of that wider response.
The NBI argues that prevention must be accompanied by accessible support systems, effective justice mechanisms and visible accountability for perpetrators.
GBVF also has consequences beyond individual incidents of violence, affecting families, workplaces, communities and broader efforts to build an inclusive economy.
The NBI therefore regards the issue as both a social justice challenge and a national development concern.
“The lives lost in Ekurhuleni demand more than our condolences. They demand action,” the organisation said.
The NBI says it will continue working with partners to strengthen prevention and response programmes while encouraging corporate South Africa to play a more active role in building safer environments for women and girls.
For the organisation, the objective is to turn corporate commitment into practical action — using the reach, resources and workplaces of South African businesses as part of a broader national response to GBVF.
