One women killed every three hours in South Africa

[Patnotpending]

I have a contact who moved to Cape Town a few years ago and mentioned almost in passing, a few weeks ago, that a young woman had been raped and murdered in her local Post Office.

I came across an article that starts with this story in The New Yorker

www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-death-of-uyinene-mrwetyana-and-the-rise-of-south-africas-aminext-movement

A woman murdered every three hours, according to the South African police – so possibly an underestimate. And rape endemic. Where does one start trying to turn this horror around?

I know nothing about this, but the first question that comes to mind is about the law, enforcement of the law and punishment.
Followed by the question of corruption.
How are the murderers getting away with this?

It would be interesting to hear from South Africans

Wow. That is heartbreaking

The statistics about rape and violence towards women in South Africa are awful. That was one of the things that The Sussexes were talking about on their recent visit.

I went there on a work trip years ago and it was very bad even then. Cape Town was known for this - which is weird because it is such a beautiful place, and you could be lulled into a false sense of security but I was warned by my local colleagues not to stray beyond a certain point and to be vigilant at all times.

The Sussexes are unfortunately unable to tell the difference between men and women though. It’s all about gender apparently.

How on earth do we protect women when those who claim to campaign on their behalf cannot define who they are protecting and from whom?

The problem there is that the justice / prison system is so strict that it makes it worthwhile for rapists / muggers / car jackers / even people who commit minor crimes like fraud to kill their victims so they have no witnesses. And while on paper you have a very pro-black south african country, the reality is that white and Indian south african criminals are often more likely to get off for rape (or not be charged in the first place) especially if they are rich. South Africa is unsafe and dangerous - comparable to Kenya or Uganda on it’s worst days.

I am South African
But I don’t life in South Africa any more.

This rape and murder were particularly heinous, and made news headlines all over the country and my Facebook was particularly grim around that time.

However - it’s pretty bad altogether, my friends admire my freedom and my ability to do things here on my own in a way South African women cannot live their lives at all without fear.

However it needs to be South African men who stand up against this violence. And it needs to start with addressing domestic violence (IMO).
Before I left SA - there were a particularly bad group of crimes where men were killing their entire families and then committing suicide, I remember being appalled at it.

I am not sure of the stats? And I would be interested to see them, but I think that the majority of rape and murders in SA are committed by men known to the women who are killed.

It’s sad
And I have to say a i worry for my friends there.

I’m married to a South African and my in laws are still there. Dh did his medical training there as well at Cap Town university and worked in lots of the more rural hospitals too. Life is cheap there whether you are female or male. He would lose count of the number of gun shot wounds and stabbed chests that he would deal with daily, oh and not forgetting limbs hacked off with pangas (machete type weapon).
But yes often the female victim would be raped first some of it is a cultural lack of respect for human life. But a lot of it stems from poverty of course. There is still huge poverty in SA and poverty equals crime.
We moved the in laws into a retirement complex because they were no longer safe in their house.

Oh and dh would often treat women who were repeatedly raped by their husbands because wives were (and in lots of areas still are) regarded as their husband’s possessions to be treated in any way the man saw fit. Education is the way to address that. At least with the ending of apartheid more children have been able to access education.

I listened to a radio programme once about the rape rate in South Africa. Awful. They had these men on who take a woman home and then get their friends in on the act without consent, so raping her. One man agreed to be interviewed by the reporter. The reporter askied him whether he couldn't understand how horrifically upsetting that would be for the woman. The man got all impatient with the reporter: "Look! It's not about the woman! It's not personal to her." It was horrendous. Bascially thought the woman shouldn't be that upset because it wasn't an act aimed at her personally.

Such fucked up thinking. No wonder the country has the rape rate it does.