Grim discoveries of murdered women spark fear in South Africa

BBC

"What we are going to do, I have no idea," sobs Nokwanda Matshikiza, reflecting on the murder of her niece Dineo Motapane. "But something must give."

"For us, for all the other women. How many other bodies will be found before something happens?"

Nokwanda is speaking to the BBC from the family home near South Africa's main city, Johannesburg, just two days after relatives identified Dineo's body.

The 38-year-old mother of a young child was last seen alive on Sunday. Her battered and partly burned body was later found in the residential region of Ekurhuleni.

Nokwanda weeps as she describes how the family will have to face, at some point, the grim task of telling Dineo's daughter of her death.

"How do you explain that your parent was brutally murdered, dumped in a field, and just left there, discarded like a piece of rubbish?

"There's no coming to peace with it," she adds. "It's something that you can never reconcile yourself with, that you can never get over."

Dineo's death this week has come amid a series of comparable incidents in Ekurhuleni – her body one of three discovered there this week. In total, nine bodies of murdered women have been found in similar circumstances in the region since July.

The problem has always been there, but this spate of grim discoveries has once again sparked a national outcry about the scale of violence against women in the country – which has one of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world.

Themba Kekana is also living in shock at the death of a loved one. His sister, Itumeleng, was one of the first to disappear in Ekurhuleni.

The 32-year-old shopkeeper's body was found in July, 17 days after she was last seen alive. Her body was badly bruised, partially clothed and dumped on a bridge.

"We are devastated with grief," says Themba, wet eyes shining.

"I look at my sister's young daughter and my eyes fill with tears; I know there is no way that I can ever take this pain away from her.

"No family should have to deal with what we are faced with."

Extreme violence

Only one arrest has been made in connection with the murders – and that was two days after the first body was discovered on 15 July.

Nobody has been detained following the murders of Itumeleng or Dineo or the other six Ekurhuleni women.

Most of the victims were young, in their 20s or 30s, and almost all had suffered extreme violence before their deaths.

Police have said they are not sure if they are hunting a serial killer. The cases may not be linked.

Either way, what has happened in this residential district east of South Africa's biggest city has traumatised the nation, spotlighting a situation many believe is a crisis.

South Africa's police issue detailed crime statistics every quarter, which show that between April and June this year, 5 427 people were murdered.

The official data does not distinguish victims by gender. Still, this week the country's Human Rights Commission released figures showing that 569 women had been killed in that period (six a day on average), with another 1 052 who faced attempted murder.

Many women - already feeling unsafe - have been left reeling by recent events.

And it has put pressure on the government, less than a year after ministers acknowledged the scale of the issue and declared gender-based violence a national disaster.

Announcing the move last November, Minister of Social Development Nokuzola Sisisi Tolashe said that treating the issue as a national disaster would help the government tackle the crisis.

It followed weeks of protests, culminating in a "Women's Shut Down" march as South Africa hosted the G20 summit.

Femicide

This week has seen a chorus of calls for further action.

Rights group Amnesty International said an important first step towards protecting South Africa's women was to recognise femicide as a separate crime.

"Every day that femicide remains unrecognised as a crime is a failure to confront the targeted killing of women," said Amnesty's country director Shenilla Mohamed in a statement. "It is time to call it what it is: Femicide. Femicide is a gender-motivated crime. It is the killing of a woman because she is a woman."

Amnesty says femicide is criminalised as a specific crime in 33 countries, including Gabon and Morocco in Africa.

It argues that making that change in South Africa could help focus on the scale of the issue.

"It would compel the state to confront their failure to protect women and girls from violence," says Mohamed. "You cannot fix what you are not tracking."

Almost everyone in South Africa agrees more needs to be done.

President Cyril Ramaphosa this week pledged to leave "no stone unturned" in investigating the crimes in Ekurhuleni, adding: "As a nation, we must stand up for the rights, safety and dignity of women and girls."

Lebogang Ramafoko, an advocate for gender and social justice, said the levels of violence against women in the country were symptomatic of a much bigger problem – a lack of regard for humanity.

"The bodies of black women have been treated as disposable in this country for time immemorial, passed down from colonisation through to apartheid," she tells the BBC, referring to the legalised system of racism that was in place until 1994.