Who is killing women in SA? Investigations fail to identify suspects in nearly half of femicide cases

In cases where perpetrators were identified between 2009 and 2020/2021, intimate partners were the most common offenders.

The picture looks bleak for South African women as femicide investigations increasingly fail to identify who is killing them.

This was disclosed by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) during its briefing to the Social Development Portfolio Committee on Thursday.

SAMRC presented its findings on the scope of gender-based violence and femicide in the country.

Its 2020/2021 research study showed that the percentage of femicide cases where investigations failed to identify a perpetrator rose to 44%, up from 30% in 2017.

In cases where perpetrators were identified between 2009 and 2020/2021, intimate partners were the most common offenders.

Research also reveals that three women a day are killed by an intimate partner. This is because one in four women reported experiences of physical and sexual abuse.

There was no difference in the estimated number of women killed in 2017 (2,407) and in 2020/21 (2,409), which is almost 7 women per day in South Africa.

Provincial statistics on femicide

The Eastern Cape remained the province with the highest rates of femicide.

Most provinces saw a decrease in overall femicide in 2020/21 compared to 2017, with the exception of Gauteng – from 8.1% to 9.2%).

Intimate partner femicide rates increased significantly in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng in 2020/21 compared to 2017 – from 8% to 10% and from 3.8% to 5.5% respectively.

Three provinces had some evidence of a decline in 2020/21 compared to 2017 – Western Cape (4.9% to 4.1%); Northern Cape (6.3% to 3.1%) and Free State (5.8% to 3.6%).

In KwaZulu-Natal, rates were unchanged at 5.9%.

Government processes

Earlier this month, the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) criticized the performance of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development in its reports.

According to AGSA Assistant Director, Aphendele Mantiyane, the justice department, including the NPA, could not present credible performance reports before the audit process.

AGSA said it identified material findings involving inadequate record keeping, where reconciliation and verification of information was not carried out effectively, resulting in inconsistencies between reported information and supporting records.

“There were indicators that were not well defined, particularly those that had court dependencies on other role players within the criminal justice system, where those arrangements were not agreed with the role players to ensure that the department was able collect and report performance. in terms of these specific indicators,” Mantiyane said.

“These are key service delivery indicators that relate to issuing protection orders within a certain time frame as the department would have planned.

“When cases like this occur, it means that the issues of GBV and femicide are exacerbated because the institutions that have the responsibility to ensure that they are delivered on time, there is no record that this objective has been met and if no, what corrections need to be made. taken to ensure they are delivered on time.”

SA is not winning the fight against the ‘second pandemic’

SAMRC told the committee that South Africa does not have a national strategy or policy on femicide, similar to the National Strategic Plan on GBVF, despite the high prevalence of femicide.

In partnership with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, SAMRC developed the National Integrated Strategy for the Prevention of Femicide in South Africa.

The Committee was not impressed by the Department of Social Development’s briefing on the progress made in the implementation of the National Strategy on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.

The department was criticized for presenting “just a copy and paste of the National Strategic Plan on GBVF”.

“He lacked details of his progress in implementing the plan as requested by the committee,” the committee said in a statement.

The department must prepare a detailed progress report, including progress reports from provincial departments, and submit it to the committee on December 4, 2024.

“We are not winning the battle against what President Cyril Ramaphosa has called South Africa’s second pandemic.

“There does not seem to be collaboration among stakeholders in efforts to implement the national strategic plan,” said committee chairperson Bridget Masango.

“Furthermore, it is worrying that the programs the government has in place to prevent teenage pregnancy do not seem to be showing encouraging results.”