To:
The National Assembly of the Republic of South Africa
The Speaker of the National Assembly
Members of Parliament
President Cyril Ramaphosa

OUR DEMAND
We, the undersigned citizens and residents of the Republic of South Africa, demand political accountability at the highest level of government for the continuing failure to adequately protect women and children from gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF).

We are demanding that President Cyril Ramaphosa resign from office or that the National Assembly initiate and pursue the constitutional process for his removal from office where the constitutionally required grounds are established.

We are not asking for another summit.

We are not asking for another task team.

We are not asking for another review.

We are not asking for another statement of condemnation.

We want consequences.

 
WHY WE ARE PETITIONING
For years, women and children in South Africa have lived with the reality of gender-based violence, sexual violence, femicide and the failure of institutions that are supposed to protect them.

In November 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa publicly declared GBVF a national crisis and stated that extraordinary and concerted action was required to address it.

Yet women continue to be murdered.

Children continue to be abused.

Survivors continue to encounter institutional failures.

Families continue to bury daughters, mothers, sisters and children.

And government continues to respond to each new tragedy with condolences and renewed commitments.

Condolences are not accountability.

A government cannot repeatedly acknowledge a crisis while citizens continue to suffer its consequences and expect public anger to remain confined to social-media outrage.

We believe that the time has come to move from declarations to consequences.

 
OUR CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa places positive obligations on the State.

Section 7(2)
The State must respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights contained in the Bill of Rights.

Section 9
Everyone has the right to equality and equal protection and benefit of the law. The Constitution expressly prohibits unfair discrimination on grounds including gender and sex.

Section 10
Everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected.

Section 11
Everyone has the right to life.

Section 12(1)(c)
Everyone has the right to freedom and security of the person, including the right not to be subjected to violence from either public or private sources.

Section 28
Children have specific constitutional protections, including protection from maltreatment, neglect, abuse and degradation.

These are not aspirational statements.

They are constitutional rights.

And the State has constitutional obligations in relation to them.

 
WE ARE DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILITY — NOT A NEW POLICY
South Africans have repeatedly been told that government recognises the seriousness of GBVF.

We have heard the declarations.

We have heard the commitments.

We have heard the strategies.

We have heard the calls for action.

We have attended demonstrations.

We have mourned.

We have spoken.

We have organised.

We have waited.

And women are still dying.

We therefore reject the idea that another governmental review, consultation or declaration is an adequate response to a crisis that government itself has already acknowledged.

The question we are asking now is:

Who is politically accountable when the State repeatedly fails to protect the people whose rights it is constitutionally obligated to protect?
 
OUR DEMANDS
We therefore call upon the National Assembly to:

1. CONSIDER THE PRESIDENT'S ACCOUNTABILITY
Parliament must subject the President's executive leadership and the government's response to GBVF to serious constitutional scrutiny.

This must include consideration of whether failures by the executive and relevant state institutions amount to violations of constitutional obligations or other grounds contemplated by Section 89 of the Constitution.

2. PURSUE SECTION 89 WHERE THE CONSTITUTIONAL GROUNDS ARE ESTABLISHED
Section 89 provides for the removal of the President by the National Assembly where the constitutionally prescribed grounds are established, including a serious violation of the Constitution or law, serious misconduct, or inability to perform the functions of office.

We therefore call upon Members of Parliament to exercise their constitutional responsibilities and initiate or support the appropriate parliamentary process where the evidence establishes such grounds.

3. DEMAND A POLITICAL ANSWER FROM THE PRESIDENT
President Cyril Ramaphosa must answer publicly and substantively for the government's record in preventing and responding to GBVF.

South Africans deserve more than condolences after another woman is murdered.

4. DEMAND THAT MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT TAKE A PUBLIC POSITION
We call upon every political party and every Member of Parliament to tell their constituents clearly:

Will you support constitutional action to hold the President politically accountable?

We reject silence.

We reject political evasion.

We reject the idea that party loyalty should take precedence over constitutional accountability.

5. SUPPORT A PRESIDENTIAL RESIGNATION
If President Cyril Ramaphosa accepts that the State has failed to adequately fulfil its constitutional responsibilities and no longer believes he can effectively discharge the responsibilities of his office, we call upon him to resign.

6. IF HE WILL NOT RESIGN, PARLIAMENT MUST DO ITS CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY
If the President refuses to resign, we call upon Parliament to use the constitutional mechanisms available to it to determine whether he should be removed from office.

No public office should be beyond accountability.

 
THIS IS NOT AN ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY
It is the opposite.

We are exercising democracy.

We are exercising our constitutional right to petition Parliament.

We are exercising our right to demand accountability from public representatives.

We are demanding that the institutions created by the Constitution actually work.

The President is not above the Constitution.

Parliament is not above the Constitution.

Political parties are not above the Constitution.

And neither are citizens.

Our democracy cannot mean that citizens vote every five years and remain silent between elections.

Democracy means that citizens can organise, petition, protest, challenge, litigate and demand answers from those who exercise public power.

 
WE KNOW WHAT THIS PETITION CAN — AND CANNOT — DO
We recognise that a petition does not itself impeach or remove a President.

Under Section 89, the National Assembly is responsible for the constitutional removal process.

This petition therefore has a clear purpose:

to demonstrate public demand for political accountability and to place that demand directly before Parliament and Members of Parliament.

We will use the signatures collected through this petition to:

submit a formal representation to Parliament;
approach Members of the National Assembly;
request written positions from political parties and MPs;
support parliamentary submissions and petitions;
engage relevant constitutional institutions;
document which public representatives support or oppose the demand for accountability;
and publicly communicate the responses received.
We are asking our elected representatives to act.

 
OUR MESSAGE TO MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT
You were elected to represent the people.

You took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution.

We are therefore asking you a simple question:

When women and children continue to face devastating violence despite years of government acknowledgement and intervention, where does political accountability begin?

We ask you not to hide behind party structures.

Not to hide behind statements.

Not to hide behind committees.

Not to tell us that government is “working on it.”

Tell us what consequence you believe is appropriate.

If you believe the President should remain in office, explain why.

If you believe he should resign, say so.

If you believe the constitutional grounds for removal have been established, act accordingly.

But do not remain silent.

 
OUR DEMAND IS SIMPLE
We do not want another condolence message.

We do not want another hashtag after another woman is murdered.

We do not want another declaration that GBVF is a crisis.

We already know it is a crisis.

The President said so himself.

We want leadership that carries consequences.

We want accountability that reaches the highest levels of government.

We want a political system in which failure to protect constitutional rights is taken seriously.

And we want Parliament to demonstrate that no person — including the President — is above constitutional accountability.

NO MORE CONDOLENCES.
WE WANT CONSEQUENCES.
WE DEMAND:
RESIGNATION OR CONSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY THROUGH THE APPROPRIATE REMOVAL PROCESS.

Sign this petition.

Share it.

Send it to your MP.

Ask your political representatives where they stand.

And remember: our anger is not the end of this campaign. It is the beginning of political action.