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Cricket South Africa (CSA) has launched a campaign aimed at addressing growing gender-based violence (GBV) in South Africa. The group announced that it was thrilled to announce its expanded commitment to “bowl and bat against gender-based violence (GBV) in South Africa”. The hashtag #ENDGBV will be promoted throughout the cricket season of 2022–23.

The #ENDGBV campaign was inspired by the Momentum Proteas, South Africa’s national women’s cricket team, and their annual Black Day movement, in which they play an international match in their distinctive all-black uniforms to raise awareness of a pressing societal issue that South Africans are currently facing.

Abuse of women and children in South Africa is the most common type of GBV. According to UNICEF South Africa, 243 children and 855 women were murdered between April and June this year, while a further 1,670 children were victims of grievous bodily harm. GBV can leave an ever-lasting psychological scar on the victim and can affect or be committed by anyone, regardless of their race, age, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.

Initially, CSA’s #ENDGBV campaign was commissioned internally for employees at the headquarters and the Center of Excellence in the form of a distinctive email signature with the official logo and a QR code that directs curious people to the official pledge to #ENDGBV.

All 31 senior domestic teams in men’s and women’s cricket will proudly display the hashtag on the back of their 2022/23 uniforms. In addition, all of the CSA cricket pipeline teams will join the senior teams before the end of the season. These shirts will be worn for all of the domestic competitions held by the CSA, beginning with the start of the CSA Women’s Provincial One-Day and T20 Cup.

CSA’s Chief Executive Officer, Pholetsi Moseki, stated that “Gender-based violence is a scourge that has affected many South Africans from all walks of life for far too long in our society, and as the custodians of the multicultural and diverse cricketing community, the #ENDGBV campaign is of huge importance in ensuring cricket is a safe and accessible environment.”

“It’s going to take a joint drive from the entire cricketing family to not only raise awareness of this plague but to also commit to playing a crucial role in helping to eradicate GBV from our communities and the pledge speaks precisely to that,” he added.

Wanele Mngomezulu, the chief marketing officer for CSA, added: “At Cricket South Africa, we are determined to use all avenues available to the organization to raise awareness around gender-based violence ahead of a historic summer of cricket where we will be hosting the Women’s T20 World Cup and the inaugural ICC Women’s U19 T20 World Cup.”

“Given that the entire world will be watching, it was crucial for the CSA to make sure that a pressing issue, like raising awareness of and fighting to eradicate gender-based violence, was at the forefront of our messaging throughout the cricketing ecosystem throughout the course of the season and beyond. The entire CSA cricket season in 2022–23 is devoted to “bowling and batting” against gender-based violence”, she said.

This initiative by CSA is one of many that have been launched by different organizations across the country to combat GBV. Different organizations have taken it upon themselves to solve this issue since government policies have dismally failed.