SA has world’s highest rate of femicide – report

Latest results from the fourth national femicide study by the South SA Research Council’s Gender & Health Research Unit show SA continues to have some of the highest femicide rates in the world. According to a Sunday Tribune report, the unit’s Professor Naeemah Abrahams said the report covered four surveys from 1999 to 2020/21 the first year of Covid-19, highlighting an increase in intimate partner femicide and a decline in convictions. She said the worsening of the situation during the pandemic raised an alarm, noting the research report was based on a thorough review of mortuary files, autopsy reports, and interviews with police investigators. ‘Missing data on perpetrators has increased over the years, resulting in more cases going unresolved,’ she said. The report revealed that 60% of women in 2020/21 were killed by an intimate partner, an increase from previous years. It found that despite a drop in femicide during the pandemic’s alcohol ban periods, intimate partner femicide increased. It was also revealed that convictions also dropped, with fewer than one in five intimate partner femicide cases resulting in a conviction.

The study results showed that women’s chances of receiving justice significantly decreased, with more cases of unidentified perpetrators, notes the Sunday Tribune report. ‘Femicide is preventable. Yet in SA reports of another femicide have become the new normal. We must address this crisis with urgency, especially given the sharp rise in intimate partner femicide during the pandemic. The fact that conviction rates are so low, and the number of unsolved cases is growing, should be a resounding call to improve our justice system’s response to GBV,’ said Abrahams. She said intimate partner femicide now accounted for 60.1% of all femicide, and 1 in 6 women killed showed evidence of sexual violence.