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S.Africa president orders action after women murdered
S.Africa president orders action after women murdered
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President Cyril Ramaphosa said Tuesday he had ordered a clean-up of high-risk municipal areas and a crackdown on alcohol abuse to protect women after a series of murders has sparked a national outcry.
The discovery of the bodies of 11 women dumped in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, since mid-July has reignited alarm over persistently high levels of gender-based violence.
"The nation is angry. The women of South Africa are angry. Their anger is justified. I share that anger," Ramaphosa said in a national address.
He said a multidisciplinary, national-level emergency response was in place to investigate the Ekurhuleni murders, for which four people were in police custody.
"There has understandably been widespread fear that the discovery of these women in close proximity could indicate the work of a single perpetrator," Ramaphosa said.
"At present, the police have not found evidence establishing that these killings were committed by a single perpetrator."
The latest body was found on Sunday in open veld. The day before a semi-naked woman's body was found near a cemetery in the same municipality.
Many of the victims were in their 20s and 30s, with some stripped of their clothes and showing signs of sexual assault.
Even though gender-based violence had been declared a national disaster last year, the government had failed women, Ramaphosa said, announcing a new raft of government measures with deadlines.
"We must confront an uncomfortable truth. What we have done has not been enough. We need to do much more," he said.
"Every municipality must begin a women's safety audit without delay," he said. "High-risk areas must be identified" and addressed.
"These audits must identify broken streetlights, overgrown public spaces, abandoned buildings, unsafe transport routes and facilities, poorly secured parks, and other conditions that place women at risk."
He also ordered an "enforcement package" to reduce alcohol-related violence.
Police and prosecutors had been instructed to reopen unresolved cases involving women and children and to fast-track existing cases, prioritising gender-based violence and femicide.
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