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

The picture looks bleak for women in South Africa, as femicide investigations are increasingly failing to identify who is killing them.

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

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

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Its 2020/2021 research study showed that the percentage of femicide cases where investigations failed to identify a perpetrator increased 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.

The research also reveals that three women are killed per day by an intimate partner. This as one in four women reported experiences of physical and sexual abuse.

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

Provincial femicide stats

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

Most provinces showed a decrease in overall femicide in 2020/21 compared to 2017, except for Gauteng – from 8.1% to 9.2%).

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

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Three provinces had some evidence of a decrease 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) criticised the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development’s performance in its reports.

According to AGSA Assistant Manager Aphendule Mantiyane, the justice department, including the NPA, could not submit credible performance reports before the audit process.

The AGSA said it identified material findings involving inadequate record-keeping, where reconciliation and verification of information were not effectively conducted, leading to inconsistencies between reported information and supporting records.

“There were indicators that were not well-defined, especially those which had court dependencies with other role players within the criminal justice system, wherein those arrangements were not agreed upon with the role players to ensure the department is able to collect and report the performance in terms of those particular indicators,” said Mantiyane.

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“These are key service delivery indicators that relate to issuing of protection orders within a particular timeframe as the department would have planned.

“When such instances occur, that means issues of GBV and femicide are exacerbated because the institutions that have the responsibility to ensure they are delivered timeously, there is no record to say, this objective has been met and if not, what corrections need to be taken to ensure they are delivered timeously.”

SA not winning fight against ‘second pandemic’

The SAMRC told the committee that South Africa did 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, the SAMRC developed the National Integrated Strategy for the Prevention of Femicide in South Africa.

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The committee was not impressed with the briefing by the Department of Social Development on the progress made in implementing the National Strategy on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.

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

“It lacked details on its progress in implementing the plan, as the committee had required it to do,” said the committee in a statement.

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

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“We are not winning the fight against what President Cyril Ramaphosa has called the second pandemic in South Africa.

“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 concerning that the programmes the government has to prevent teenage pregnancies don’t seem to be yielding encouraging results.”