Ramaphosa Declares Emergency Response After 12 Women’s Bodies Found
Story By Staff Reporter
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a national clean-up of high-risk areas on Tuesday. Police found the bodies of 12 women east of Johannesburg in just two months.
The killings have sparked a national outcry. South Africa has one of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world.
Emergency response announced
Ramaphosa called the government’s response a multidisciplinary, national-level emergency effort. Police have arrested four people so far.
Gender-based violence “cannot be accepted as a normal part of life in South Africa,” the president said in an address to the nation. He admitted the country has “not done enough” to protect women and girls.
No evidence of a single killer
Many South Africans fear that one perpetrator is behind the deaths, because police found the women close together. Ramaphosa called that fear understandable, but said the evidence does not support it yet. “At present, the police have not found evidence establishing that these killings were committed by a single perpetrator,” he said.
Safety audits for every municipality
Ramaphosa ordered every municipality to begin a women’s safety audit “without delay.” Officials must identify high-risk areas and address them.
Audits should flag broken streetlights, overgrown public spaces and abandoned buildings. They must also cover unsafe transport routes, poorly secured parks and other hazards that put women at risk.
Tougher action on alcohol
Ramaphosa also announced an “enforcement package” to reduce alcohol-related violence. He stressed that alcohol is no excuse. “Alcohol does not cause gender-based violence and it can never excuse it. Responsibility always lies with the perpetrator,” he said.
Even so, he described harmful alcohol use as “a significant aggravating factor in interpersonal violence.” The wider prevention effort must address it, he added.
A deeper change in attitudes
Policing and legislation cannot solve the problem alone, according to the president. Society itself must change.
Violence against women “does not begin when a fist is raised,” he said. Nor does it start when a man rapes or murders a woman. “It begins much earlier.”
Attitudes that treat women as inferior fuel it. So does the belief that a man has the right to control a woman. Ramaphosa said it starts when people confuse jealousy with love, control with protection and coercion with affection. “It begins when a man refuses to accept the word no,” he said.
Men and boys must lead
The president called on men and boys to take the lead in ending gender-based violence. “We have placed the burden of male violence on women,” he said. “That must change.”
He also rejected any solution that restricts women. “The solution to violence against women cannot be to make women less free.”
Scale of violence in South Africa
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Killers murdered 5,427 people between April and June this year alone.
Police statistics do not separate victims by gender. The South African Human Rights Commission recently reported that 569 women lost their lives in that period. Another 1,052 women survived attempted murder.
Reporting based on original coverage by BBC.
