.….120 cases of rape reported daily
South Africa’s femicide rate has reached an unprecedented level over the last five years, with more and more women killed by men, Deputy President David Mabuza said on Friday.
In 2017 alone, South Africa lost 2,639 women who were killed by men, Mabuza said at the National Men’s Summit in Durban.
Mabuza said the figure could be as high as 9,000 women killed every year because only one in three murders is detected by the police.
He said South Africa also has close to 120 cases of rape reported daily.
In the last three years, he said, 124,526 rape cases have been reported, with 41 per cent of them against children.
South African women also suffer from physical violence as one in five women is beaten by an intimate partner, according to Mabuza.
“And so we have to meet. We must admit that we have a problem that has reached unprecedented and unacceptable levels,” he said.
There are countless incidents of terrible murders and violence perpetrated against innocent women and children in South Africa, said Mabuza.
“These gruesome and horrible deeds must stop. It is within our hands to stop this madness that threatens to tear apart the basic fibre of our society,” he said.
The Men’s Summit is an important step in the right direction, showing recognition that men have heard the harrowing cries of women and children who have suffered violence perpetrated against them by men, Mabuza said.
Alongside this, the government will uphold the rule of law and bring perpetrators to book, he said.
“It is our duty of the state to arrest, prosecute and remove perpetrators from society. This is an undertaking we will not take lightly,” said Mabuza.
The three-day National Men’s Summit, organised by the South African National AIDS Council partnership with the Department of Social Development, is bringing together over 500 men and boys representing various sections of society across the country to seek lasting solutions to gender-based violence.
(Xinhua/NAN)
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