Latest statistics show that male romantic partners were responsible for 239 rapes and 44 murders in domestic violence cases during the lockdown.
While many celebrated finally getting the chance to stay at home during the lockdown, thousands of woman across the country feared being under lockdown with men close to them. The recently released crime statistics for the period between April and June 2020 showed the links between several crimes and domestic violence. According to the stats, domestic violence was the underlying factor in 112 murders, 322 rapes, 3364 assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm cases (assault GBH) and 7 518 common assault cases which were reported nationally. The stats also indicated that under domestic violence, women accounted for 96 per cent of rape victims, 82 per cent of common assault victims and 71 per cent of assault GBH victims.
For years organisations and the general public have been calling on men to stop being the perpetrators of rape, murder and abuse of the women around them. Unfortunately men, once again, failed to keep the women that look to them for safety and security, protected. The stats showed that romantic partners such as boyfriends, ex-boyfriends and husbands were responsible for 239 rapes and 44 murders. The stats also suggest that five women were murdered by their brothers while 11 were raped by them. Sons were responsible for at least two rapes and five murders and fathers were reported as the perpetrators of seven and eight murders and rapes respectively.
The stats also highlighted how the provinces were handling domestic violence during this time. Of the 112 murders reported, the most were recorded in KwaZulu-Natal (23), with the most domestic-violence-related rapes being reported in Gauteng with a total of 70. Gauteng contributed the most to assault GBH and common assault as well with a collective total of 3 835 reported incidents. The province with the lowest number of domestic violence murders was Mpumalanga with three while the Northern Cape recorded the lowest number of related rapes with 12.
