South Africa to clean up high-risk areas after 12 women killed

ByHenry Moore BBC News.

Key points

• South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates, with 5, 427 individuals murdered between April and June this year alone.
• The deaths sparked a national outcry regarding the scale of violence against women in South Africa.
• Ramaphosa confirmed what he called a multidisciplinary, national-level emergency response to the murders, for which there have been four arrests.
• Admitting the administration has not done enough over recent years to prevent gender-based violence, he unveiled a new wave of measures to support protect women and girls.
• "But harmful alcohol use is a significant aggravating factor in interpersonal violence, and it must be addressed as part of our wider prevention effort."

After the bodies of 12 women were discovered in an area east of Johannesburg in just two months, south Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday confirmed a clean-up of high-risk areas nationwide.

For context, the deaths sparked a national outcry regarding the scale of violence against women in South Africa. It has one of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world.

He remarked gender-based violence "cannot be accepted as a normal part of life in South Africa" and admitted the country has "not done enough" to protect women and girls.

"There has understandably been widespread fear that the discovery of these women in close proximity could indicate the work of a single perpetrator, " Ramaphosa remarked in an address to the nation.

"At present, the police have not found evidence establishing that these killings were committed by a single perpetrator."

"Every municipality must begin a women's safety audit without delay, " he remarked. "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." Ramaphosa additionally unveiled an "enforcement package" to reduce alcohol-related violence.

"Alcohol does not cause gender-based violence and it can never excuse it. Responsibility always lies with the perpetrator, " he remarked.

Notably, the South African president additionally stated a deeper change, beyond policing and legislation, must take place to reduce violence against women and girls, saying it "does not begin when a fist is raised" or when a woman is raped or murdered.

It begins much earlier, he remarked. It begins in attitudes that regard women as inferior. With the belief that a man has the right to control a woman.

When control is mistaken for protection and coercion is mistaken for affection, It begins when jealousy is mistaken for love. It begins when a man refuses to accept the word no.

He went on to call on men and boys to take the lead in ending gender-based violence.

"We have placed the burden of male violence on women, " Ramaphosa remarked. "That must change."

"The solution to violence against women cannot be to make women less free."

While South African police statistics do not differentiate victims by gender, the South African Human Rights Commission remarked lately that 569 women were killed and 1, 052 others survived attempted murder between April and June this year.

In short, south Africa to clean up high-risk areas after 12 women killed is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.