‘This is not a matter of women alone,’ says Minister Ndabeni as she addresses GBV at GEC+Africa 2026 - IOL

The scene where the body of a ninth woman was discovered in the Ekuhuleni area, amid growing concern over a series of bodies found in the area.

While addressing delegates at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress Africa (GEC+Africa) 2026 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Minister of Small Business Development Stella Ndabeni took a moment to address the current crisis of women being killed in South Africa. 

Women across the country are living in fear as bodies continue to be discovered in Gauteng. 

In the latest discovery, the body of a woman, believed to be in her 30s, was found on Thursday morning in an open space in Lama Street in the Villa Lisa area of Boksburg. 

The discovery brings the total number of women found dead in Ekurhuleni to nine in two months.

Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni addresses the current plight of women living in South Africa at the GEC+Africa 2026 on Thursday.

While the Minister had everyone eating out of the palm of her hands as she addressed delegates on business, innovation and regulations, she made it a point to speak about the current turmoil facing the nation. 

“We gather at a time when our country continues to confront devastating violence against women. The killing of women that we have witnessed in Gauteng and elsewhere in South Africa must travel the conscience of every one of us. We cannot speak about building prosperous economies while women are afraid in their homes and communities,” Ndabeni said. 

She said this was not a "women’s only problem". 

“We cannot celebrate women entrepreneurs on our stages while women are being violated and killed beyond this conference’s walls. This is not a matter of women alone. I invite everyone gathered here, entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, innovators, diplomatic partners, women and men to take a stand just like those women of 1956,” she said. 

She urged those to take a stand and say: “Not in our homes, not in our workplaces, not in our communities, not in our countries, not anywhere in our continent and the world”. 

The minister said while everyone at the conference had gathered to ensure Africa was prosperous economically, this could not be done without making it safe. 

“The Africa and the world we are building must not only be prosperous, it must be safe. Freedom without personal safety is incomplete freedom. Men must stand up. Communities must stand up. Business must stand up. Governments must act. Society must refuse to normalise violence against women and children,” she said. 

Ndabeni said the measure of Africa that is being built cannot simply be based on the size of its economies. 

“It will be whether an African girl can grow up free. Whether the African woman can walk without fear and whether she can dream, innovate, build, and lead without her life being threatened simply because she is a woman. That, too, is African liberation,” she said.