Pretoria: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a nationwide emergency response and safety audit of high-risk areas following the discovery of the bodies of 12 women in an area east of Johannesburg over two months.
The deaths have triggered widespread public concern over gender-based violence in South Africa, which continues to face high levels of violence against women and girls. Four people have been arrested in connection with the killings, while authorities have not found evidence so far linking the deaths to a single perpetrator.
Ramaphosa remarked that the government had ‘not done enough’ to protect women and girls and stressed that gender-based violence could not be accepted as a normal part of life.
As part of the emergency response, every municipality will be required to conduct a women’s safety audit to identify and address conditions that could expose women to greater risks. These will include broken streetlights, overgrown public spaces, abandoned buildings, unsafe transport routes, poorly secured parks and other vulnerable locations.
Ramaphosa also announced an enforcement package aimed at reducing alcohol-related violence. While stressing that alcohol does not cause or excuse gender-based violence, he stated that harmful alcohol use was a significant aggravating factor in interpersonal violence and should be addressed through wider prevention measures.
The president called for broader social change alongside stronger policing and legislation, arguing that violence against women often begins with attitudes that view women as inferior or give men control over women. He urged men and boys to play a leading role in tackling gender-based violence and said the responsibility for addressing male violence should not continue to fall primarily on women.
South Africa recorded 5,427 murders between April and June this year, according to police statistics. While police data does not distinguish homicide victims by gender, the South African Human Rights Commission recently reported that 569 women were killed and 1,052 others survived attempted murder during the same period.
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