FEMICIDE WATCH FOR SA MOOTED

UN finds femicide five times higher than the global rate

SOUTH Africa’s femicide rate is five times higher than any other country in the world, and this has compelled the United Nations to propose a Femicide Watch for the country.

This is according to Minister of Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa, who was speaking at the Anti-Femicide Imbizo at Regina Mundi Catholic Church in Soweto on Friday.

The imbizo was hosted by the Moral Regeneration Movement and the Department of Arts and Culture in a bid to confront the scourge of femicide which appears to have swept across the country.

“There are many surveys that have been done on this matter and one of the points that have come out is that in South Africa, every eight hours a woman is killed, and half of these women die at the hands of their intimate partners,” he said.

“Intimate-partner violence is the most common form of violence experienced by South African partners and leading to death. South Africa’s femicide rate is five times more than the global rate and we must be extremely worried.”

Mthethwa said the UN had proposed that South Africa have a Femicide Watch.

“It means this matter has reached a global stage and people are noticing, which is nothing to be proud of as South Africans,” he said.

Mthethwa mentioned the names of women who have recently been killed against the backdrop of two court cases that were taking place on the same day.

Among them were those of Bongeka Phungula and Popi Qwabe, who were found on May 12 and 13 respectively after they had been shot and killed.

Qwabe, 24, was discovered by a passer-by in Naledi on the Friday and taken to a nearby hospital, where she died on arrival. Phungula was found dead in neighbouring Tladi the next day.

Alec Magaula Mamothame and Sandile Nkosi, who stand accused of murdering Qwabe and Phungula, were granted bail on Friday after magistrate Herman Badenhorst said refusing bail for the two accused would be unfair because the State’s case was weak.

Mthethwa also mentioned the name of Karabo Mokoena, who was allegedly killed by her former boyfriend Sandile Mantsoe. On Friday, Mantsoe denied murdering the 22-year-old, claiming she had committed suicide. He told the court that, upon discovering Mokoena’s body, he burnt it using petrol‚ a tyre and pool acid‚ saying he was not thinking straight at the time.

A postmortem is yet to establish whether she was dead when she was set alight in a ditch on April 28. Her charred remains were discovered by

This is nothing to be proud of as South Africans

passers-by.

Mantsoe, a foreign exchange trader who makes between R25 000 and R50 000 a month, is seeking bail of R5 000.

Mthethwa said there should not be any special conditions for the suspects.

“There should be no excuse for them, they ought to face the music. And we should be intolerant as a society towards such individuals.”

Mthethwa said one of the neglected factors which contributed to the scourge of femicide was the failure to recognise that the problem fell squarely at the feet of males.

“Part of the problem is that we concentrate on the girl child, when the problem is not with women. The people who are creating problems are male.

“It’s high time we took responsibility, as parents and as society, in raising our boy child to respect women because by the time they are men it’s too late for all of us to change their mindset.”