SANAC WOMEN’S SECTOR STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY
August 2025 – Women’s Month
For Release on 1 August 2025
This Women’s Month, the SANAC Women’s Sector stands in deep solidarity with the women of South Africa, especially those in communities – in homes, in clinics, in shelters, in schools, in rural health posts and urban townships – who are fighting battles that the world continues to ignore. We call on South Africa to look honestly at what it means to talk about ending HIV by 2030, while women’s daily struggles are still too loud to ignore.
One Struggle, One Voice: We Must End HIV and GBV Together
South Africa cannot end HIV without ending gender-based violence (GBV). We say this every day in clinics, in community dialogues, in silence, and in tears. Yet, both remain persistent threats to the safety, health and dignity of women. The SANAC Women’s Sector has taken up this cause under the campaign banner: One Struggle, One Voice – End HIV and GBV Together.
We see staggering numbers of women – in the hundreds of thousands – who are still missing from treatment, lost to follow-up, fatigued by the daily burden of accessing care, or failed by the system. Our call to Close the Gap is not abstract. It is about her treatment, her power – because every woman who is on effective treatment is one step closer to reclaiming control over her health, her body, and her life. That is why our women-led stream of the 1.1 Close the Gap Campaign is called: Her Treatment, Her Power.
We must also lift the ongoing struggles of women living with HIV and other chronic illnesses – including the deadly intersection of HIV and cervical cancer. Screening and access to preventative care are failing too many. These issues cannot be sidelined any longer. The burden of illness is not only physical – it is financial, emotional, and social.
Grounding Our Work in the National Plans
We align ourselves with the goals of the NSP for HIV, TB and STIs (2023–2028) and the NSP for Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF). But alignment is not enough. Implementation, financing and accountability remain weak – and our communities are paying the price. We call for stronger vigilance in how models are developed to inform programme and funding decisions. Decisions made in boardrooms must reflect the realities on the ground.
As South Africa moves toward the mid-term review of both the HIV and GBVF NSPs, we are preparing to conduct shadow reporting to ensure that the voices of women in communities are not left out. We call on donors to support this critical process. We also call for the GBVF NSP mid-term review to be urgently undertaken, with civil society meaningfully involved from the start.
We are also calling for systems like District Health Information System (DHIS) not to report only on health-related indicators, but to include social and structural drivers. Data must reflect the full picture of what drives HIV and GBV in our communities.
The Global Funding Landscape and Conditional Grant Crisis
The 8th Global Fund Replenishment process is upon us. The SANAC Women’s Sector and its partners will host a Pledge Dinner at the end of August 2025 – in support of South Africa’s commitment to the Global Fund Replenishment. The dinner will serve as a platform to mobilise solidarity, visibility and resources, and we invite the private sector to support this call.
At the same time, we raise the alarm about the state of domestic financing, especially the lack of accessible funding within HIV conditional grants for Women’s Sector activities at provincial level. These are two linked but distinct issues. The conditional grant crisis is undermining the national response at provincial and local levels. and in a time of shrinking international funding, we must increase domestic financing to protect community responses.
To our Women’s Sector leaders and women-led grassroots organisations in provinces – we see you. We see your struggle to access funding even as you deliver services, educate communities, support adherence, and lead dialogues on the frontlines.
We call for transparency in conditional grant allocations, and accountability from provincial Departments of Health. We urge engagements with Provincial Portfolio Committees on Health to monitor and support the flow of funds to community-led, women-led efforts. We call for access to and funding of the Women’s Sector and women-led organisations in provinces. Without resourced local action, there can be no meaningful progress.
The Daily Struggle Is Loud – In Clinics, In Councils, In Households
We hear the cries in hospital corridors – but we also hear the silence at home.
We know the pain of rationing food, skipping pills, walking miles to clinics, hiding bruises, facing insults, being unpaid for caregiving, and still showing up.
We know it – because we live it.
We see you through our own eyes, not as outsiders looking in. We are the women we are representing.
Reviving Community Systems and Women’s Leadership
We must strengthen community systems that empower women at grassroots levels to lead, advocate, and hold service delivery accountable. These systems are the lifeblood of effective HIV and GBV responses – without them, the policies and funds will never reach the people who need them most.
We call for sustained investment in women-led community structures, ensuring they are resourced, supported, and recognised as key drivers of change.
To Women Sector leaders in provinces and their organisations who continue to push without funding – we see you. In the Eastern Cape, Ubuntu Foundation; Free State, Progressive Primary Health Care; Gauteng, Access Chapter 2; Limpopo, Positive Women’s Network (PWN); and North West, Angels of Tomorrow – we see you and other organisations in provinces. Your unwavering commitment despite challenges inspires us all. To all dedicated women’s Sector member organisations at all levels including Positive Women’s Network (PWN), South African Positive Women Ambassadors (SAPWA)
Keep pushing forward, bafazi! Your relentless courage and commitment to uplifting women living with HIV inspire us all. Together, we are unstoppable.
We also extend our heartfelt thanks to Passionate Unlimited Peers in Action (PUPA) for their vital secretariat role in coordinating this unfunded sector. Your dedication and tireless efforts keep the Women’s Sector connected and moving forward despite funding challenges.
We honour those who came before us and carried the baton with strength and clarity -Mashudu Mfomande, Nomfundo Eland, Steve Mmapaseka Letsike, and Silungile Mtambo. Your leadership has shaped the journey of this sector and continues to inspire the work we do today. Following in your footsteps, we also salute provincial leaders and organisations who continue the work across our communities without pause and often without funding…
We are moved by the courage of those who walked before us. We carry the blueprint they left behind – of resistance, resilience, and radical love.
We honour those whose names are in the blueprint and may not be highlighted in this statement – because leaving no one behind means remembering them too.
These blueprints were written by women like Johanna Ncala and Prudence Nobantu Mabele, fierce activists in the HIV response.
Cecilia Makiwane, the first Black professional nurse in South Africa.
When the Nightingale is too slow to help us, we fight to honour your name – because you paved the way for nursing in Black communities
We honour Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, who dared to deliver health care outside the apartheid state through Zanempilo Community Health Care Centre (ZCHC) – the first primary health care initiative outside the public sector in South Africa. Located in Zinyoka Village near King William’s Town, it was part of the Black Community Programmes, and her leadership there taught us that women can organise and provide health services for our communities beyond the confines of public systems. Mama Mamphela, we salute you. Your courage under surveillance, your belief in community care, and your example still shape how women lead grassroots health responses today.
And as funding systems continue to doubt the capability of women-led grassroots organisations, we look at your work with pride and say: Hell no, we can – because Mama showed us how.
To our fierce activists: We are inspired by the commitment of women activists like Yvette Raphael and Phinah Kodisang, who lead organisations who join a long list of women driving change in our communities, alongside Nompumelelo Zikalala in the private sector, and our technical women leaders Coceka Nogoduka, Tabita Ntuli, Tabisa Maqetseba, Nozuko Majola, Nkhensani Nkhwashu, and others. We also honour Pelisa Nkomo, who simplifies economics for grassroots women – ensuring that even those who have never walked the corridors of higher institutional learning understand economic literacy for our development and that of our communities. We also honour Mabusi Kgwete for championing advocacy on the TB response – we see you, mfazi.
We also honour women raising awareness on social media platforms – we see you. These include Nontyantyambo Makapela and Khanyisa Ndoda on TikTok.
We recognise the rising leadership of Koketso Rathumbu, a young woman with the GBVF Response Fund, who grew up before our eyes in the health space and beautifully connects the HIV and GBV struggles through her technical expertise.
We honour Ella Mangisa, the Executive Director of Ilitha Labantu, who carries the heavy but inspiring legacy of the late Mama Mandisa Monakali. While Mama Mamphela Ramphele focused on public health and community healthcare, Mama Mandisa dedicated her life to fighting gender-based violence. She founded Ilitha Labantu 36 years ago in Gugulethu township, blazing a trail for GBV activism in South Africa. We cherish the precious moments spent with Mama Mandisa in 2024 – when we would tell her, “Mama, it’s hard; activism makes us to be targeted”, and she would encourage us to keep fighting, reminding us that even when we don’t speak, the system still targets us. Her leadership fuels our resilience – and may we continue to be supported by her resilient spirit beyond the confinements of breath.
We honor women in the WhatsApp Consultants Community, whom Thoko Budaza introduced to us, and may they continue to improve their livelihoods through their talents. We salute you, Thoko, for the plug. We thank Nombasa Gxuluwe for amplifying our work regionally and keeping us connected. We recognise Sibongile Tshabalala at SANAC Trust and Dr. Thembisile Xulu, SANAC’s CEO, whose steadfast leadership is attempting to keep the national response resilient and focused amid funding challenges during these difficult times.
These women are not just names – they are lifelines.
As Alice Walker reminded us:
“Womanism is to feminism as purple is to lavender.”
These women are our color purple.
Our Commitment This Women’s Month
This Women’s Month, we recommit to:
- Closing the gap in HIV treatment access for all women
- Fighting to end GBV and HIV as one struggle
- Elevating community voices through shadow reports
- Pushing for accountability and transparency in funding
- Ensuring that women-led responses are supported, not sidelined
- Addressing the intersection of HIV with cervical cancer and other chronic illnesses
Let us be clear: we do not want the next generation of women to inherit the same struggle.
They deserve freedom, dignity, joy, health, and safety – not activism as survival. Let the voices of women across this country rise together this Women’s Month: One Struggle. One Voice. Her Treatment. Her Power.
Contact Person:
Khanyisa Dunjwa: National Chairperson (SANAC Women’s Sector)
Email: dunjwakhanyisa@gmail.com