Women in South Africa take up guns and martial arts for protection against gender violence

Описание: (7 Mar 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bronkhorstspruit, South Africa - 24 January 2026
1. Various of women practicing shooting at target
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Sunette Du Toit, Bronkhorstspruit resident:
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“A survivor of a home invasion where five people held me up in my own house, ransacked the house, and I was not in a position to defend myself at that point. I had to do this for myself, to gain my confidence back, to be able to move in public and even in my house without feeling vulnerable.”
3. Du Toit practicing shooting
4. Hands picking up ammunition

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Johannesburg, South Africa - 31 January 2026
5. Various of women practicing jiu-jitsu

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Johannesburg, South Africa - 19 February 2026
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Mpiwa Mangwiro-Tsanga, Policy Development and Advocacy Manager at Sonke Gender Justice: 
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"15 women are killed in a day, per day in South Africa. That is how bad it is. Do we're really dealing with, we are competing with conflict countries, we have, our prevalence rate is very high, it's actually dizzying, to say the least."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Johannesburg, South Africa - 31 January 2026
7. Various of women practicing jiu-jitsu
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Tatiana Leyka, jiu-jitsu student:
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"I think it's like number-one priority. After your bread and butter, it's jiu-jitsu, it's that important. And with the rise in numbers of gender-based violence and all that, it is good for you to be able to defend yourself even if it's just to be able to get away.”
9. Women practicing jiu-jitsu

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bronkhorstspruit, South Africa -  24 January 2026
10. Women practicing shooting
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Claire Van Der Westhuizen, shooting instructor:
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"Shoot is one thing, but what we teach builds confidence, and it builds sort of that feeling like 'I'm willing to defend myself. I'm somebody that deserves to be defended'. And I think that is, for me, the biggest message that we can bring across is teaching a woman that she is worth it.”
12. Women practicing prone shooting
13. Various of women looking at target boards
STORYLINE:
At the command of a female instructor, women and girls aged 13 to 65 fire five rounds of bullets at a target a few meters away at an outdoor shooting range in Bronkhorstspruit, a small agricultural and commuter town on the outskirts of Pretoria, the capital of South Africa.

Like many women across the country, they are actively acquiring self-defense skills in an effort to feel safer due to the country’s exceptionally high rates of violence, especially violence against women.

“Check your grip, check your line of sight,” shouts Claire Van Der Westhuisen, the lead female teacher of Lone Operator shooting range, as the women quickly reload their 9mm guns for another round.

They practice a range of real-world scenarios, such as firing their pistols while lying flat on the ground.

Ranging from violent contact crimes to property-related crimes, women have found themselves endangered by perpetrators - known and unknown - even in their own homes.

Surviving a home invasion where five men forcefully entered her house, tied her up and ransacked her home, pushed working grandmother Sunnette Du Toit to pick up firearm training.





Advocacy groups say the most vulnerable to crime are women and children.






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