Thread: South African president's shame over surge in murders of women

An outcry followed the murder of Tshegofatso Pule, who was eight months pregnantSouth Africa's president says it has been a "dark and shameful week" for his country following a surge in violence against women.
Cyril Ramaphosa's remarks come after several femicides, including one woman who was eight months pregnant and found stabbed and hanging from a tree.
He noted they had occurred since some coronavirus restrictions were lifted, including a ban on the sale of alcohol.
The culture of silence around gender-based violence had to end, he said.
"Gender-based violence thrives in a climate of silence. With our silence, by looking the other way because we believe it is a personal or family matter, we become complicit in this most insidious of crimes," President Ramaphosa said.
As many as 51% of women in South Africa had experienced violence at the hands of someone they were in a relationship with, the president's statement said.
Calls for justice

Mr Ramaphosa condemned the brutality of recent killings, naming three of the victims, two of whom have become the subject of Twitter campaigns calling for justice:

• Tshegofatso Pule - #JusticeForTshego began trending after the pregnant 28-year-old was found hanging from a tree in Johannesburg on Monday. No arrests have been made yet.

• Naledi Phangindawo - the 25-year-old was stabbed to death in the harbour city of Mossel Bay last Saturday. Those using the hashtag #JusticeforNaledi want the suspect, who is now in police custody, to be denied bail. He is believed to be her partner.

The president said another young woman had been dumped under a tree in Johannesburg's Soweto township on Friday.
Police later named her as Sanele Mfaba, sparking another hashtag that began trending on Saturday - #JusticeforSanelisiwe - calling for more to be done to protect women.
South Africa's gender crime crisis









Media captionSouth Africa's Diepsloot township: 'My neighbour is a rapist'

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"The manner in which these defenceless women were killed points to an unconscionable level of barbarism and lack of humanity," the president's statement said.
"We note with disgust that at a time when the country is facing the gravest of threats from the [coronavirus] pandemic, violent men are taking advantage of the eased restrictions on movement to attack women and children."
For two months, South Africa had one of the toughest lockdowns in the world.
AFP

“It is a dark and shameful week for us as a nation. Criminals have descended to even greater depths of cruelty and callousness. It simply cannot continue"

Cyril Ramaphosa
South Africa's president

During that time alcohol was banned - it was argued that this would limit domestic abuse, prevent violence and ease pressure on hospitals.
On Thursday, Police Minister Bheki Cele linked rising crime to the partial lifting of alcohol sales on 1 June.
'Most dangerous place for a woman'

President Ramaphosa said he was deploying ministers to meet with community leaders nationwide to understand what exactly was fuelling the increase in crime.
"We need to understand what factors are fuelling this terrible trend and, as society as a whole, address them urgently," he said.
Referencing a recent case where a man could not be prosecuted for allegedly murdering his girlfriend because of a lack of evidence, he urged people to report perpetrators.
"For public faith in the criminal justice system to be maintained, gender-based violence needs to be treated with the urgency it deserves by our communities working together with our police," he said.
Following an outcry over a spate of femicides last year, President Ramaphosa had said South Africa was one of "the most unsafe places in the world to be a woman".
Since then special sexual offences courts have reopened - they have worked intermittently over recent years because of funding difficulties.
More resources have also been directed towards both places of safety for survivors of abuse, as well as government-funded programmes aimed at changing men's behaviour.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-53040513

Perhaps it’s a time for post lockdown behaviours to have a global thread on here. The tragic and unconscionable violence is not confined to just one country.

Originally Posted by Switch

Perhaps it’s a time for post lockdown behaviours to have a global thread on here. The tragic and unconscionable violence is not confined to just one country.

In NZ, which has had the dubious 'honour' of being worldwide number one in domestic abuse cases, the number has skyrocketed since lockdown due to the government's decision to make bottle shops (alcohol outlets) an essential servicel - hence keeping them open . . . and allowing grog to be sold in supermarkets unabated.
Unfortunately the majority of this affects the Maori community.

"The tragic and unconscionable violence is not confined to just one country."

Indeed. As for South Africa, it's always been blamed on 'foreigners' coming in illegally fro neighbouring countries

The figures are truly shocking.

More than 25% of South African men questioned in a survey published by the Medical Research Council (MRC) in June 2009 admitted to rape; of those, nearly half said they had raped more than one person. Three out of four of those who had admitted rape indicated that they had attacked for the first time during their teenage years. South Africa has amongst the highest incidences of child and infant rape in the world.

Crime in South Africa - Wikipedia

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Holy shit ! Now that's scary!

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

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Holy shit ! Now that's scary!

But it's nothing when compared to an episode of Fawlty Towers. That's what's really to blame for violence against black people.