The recovery of one woman’s body after another in Ekurhuleni, a city east of Johannesburg in South Africa, has spread alarm and anger across the country. Local authorities say nine women’s bodies have been recovered in similar circumstances in the area since July.
One of the most recent victims is Dineo Motapane, 38. The mother of two was last seen on Sunday. Her body was later recovered from a residential area in Ekurhuleni. There were marks of abuse on her body, and parts of it had been burnt.
Nokwanda Matshikiza, Dineo’s niece, who identified the body, said through tears: “I have no idea what we are going to do. But something has to change.”
She asked: “For us, and for all the other women too — how many more bodies have to be found before something is done?”
Nokwanda broke down in tears as she spoke of having one day to tell Dineo’s daughter the brutal circumstances of her mother’s death. “How do you explain that her guardian was brutally killed, left lying in a field and thrown away like rubbish?” she said. In her words, such a thing cannot be accepted, nor can anyone ever return to a normal life after it.
Several other women’s bodies were recovered in the same area before Dineo’s death. Local activists say five of the nine bodies found since July were in the Kempton Park area of Ekurhuleni.
Among the dead was Itumeleng, 32, a shop worker. Her body was found on a bridge in July, 17 days after she was last seen alive. The woman’s body bore marks of serious injury and was partly clothed when found.
Itumeleng’s brother, Themba Kekana, said: “We are broken with grief. When I look at my sister’s little daughter, tears come to my eyes. I know I will never be able to take that pain away from her.” No family should have to face a situation like theirs, he said.
Only one person has so far been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the killings. He was detained two days after the first body was recovered. Nobody else has been arrested over the deaths of Itumeleng, Dineo or the other women killed in Ekurhuleni.
Most of the dead were young women in their twenties and thirties. Many of their bodies bore marks of severe abuse before death.
Police are still not certain whether a serial killer is behind the killings. Investigators say there may be no connection between the incidents.
Even so, the series of cases has brought South Africa’s long-standing crisis of violence against women back to the fore. The country has one of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world.
South African police publish crime statistics every three months. Between April and June this year, 5,427 people were murdered in the country. Official statistics do not break victims down by sex, but the country’s human rights commission calculates that 569 women were killed in those three months — an average of about six a day. Over the same period, 1,052 women were victims of attempted murder.
The recent cases have left many women, already living without a sense of safety, still more frightened. Pressure on the government is growing at the same time.
In November last year, the South African government declared gender-based violence a national disaster. Social development minister Nokuzola Sisi Tolashe said at the time that recognising it as a national disaster would increase the government’s capacity to tackle the crisis. It followed weeks of protests in the country, including a Women’s Shutdown campaign.
Demands for tougher measures have now been raised again. The human rights organisation Amnesty International said an important step in protecting women would be to recognise the killing of a woman because of her sex as a separate offence in law. According to the organisation’s country director, Shenilla Mohamed, recognising such killings as femicide would make it possible to measure the true scale of the problem and give more attention to tackling it.
Amnesty says femicide has legal recognition as a specific offence in 33 countries, including Gabon and Morocco in Africa.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised that no avenue will be neglected in investigating the Ekurhuleni killings. As a nation, he said, the country must stand for the rights, safety and dignity of women and girls.
Lebogang Ramofoko, an activist on gender and social justice, believes the scale of violence against women is the expression of a deeper problem. In her view, the historical legacy of colonialism and apartheid also lies behind violence against black women in South Africa. She made clear, however, that this does not mean black men are inherently violent; rather, the effects of a long-violent social order have not yet fully passed.
Members of the Girl2Woman Foundation, run by Lumka Makhubela, which works to raise awareness in the Kempton Park area, have protested against the killings.
One member of the organisation said: “We are grieving, we are afraid. If the police can no longer protect us, then the government should come forward and do something.” It is not enough simply to tell people to be more careful, she said; effective steps are needed to make the areas where people live safe.
The fear among women in the area is plain. Thulisile Sibande, 32, said she has to look around her even when going to the shops. In her words, the fear has grown so great that it has become a kind of trauma.
Thembi Mabena, 60, lived in the same area as Dineo Motapane. She said Dineo used to speak to everyone with a smile every day. She is now anxious, saying many children and young women she knows are afraid even to go to the shops alone.
Lerato Mojiji, 20, put the gravity of the situation in a single sentence: “Women are no longer safe in South Africa.”