Crime against women in South Africa 5 times higher than the global average

Crime against women in South Africa 5 times higher than the global average

The Crime Against Women in South Africa Report by Statistics SA shows that is 5 times higher than the global average. Meaning that in South Africa, women are 5 times more likely to be killed due to gender-based violence committed by men. Within the South African society 41% of people raped are children and only one in nine cases are reported, only 4% in prosecution.

Social media is flooding with horrible stories of young girls and women going missing with the occasional story becoming news worthy. Recenty Uyinene Mrwetyana, a 19 year old UCT student was raped at the Claremont Post Office in Cape Town, during the same timeframe Leighandre Jegels “Baby Lee” a South African female boxing champion was shot dead by her boyfriend. It is unfortunate that it has become common to hear daily stories of the brutal murders of women and children and memebers of the LGBTQ+ community, of whom many have experienced corrective rape.

The solution to South Africa’s gender-based violence crisis is to change the societal narrative around women and their bodily autonomy.

Femicide             -   murder of women on the basis of their gender.

Corrective Rape -    or Curative Rape or Homophobic Rape

-      A hate crime in which a person is raped because of their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, to turn the person heterosexual.

Done By

Jasmine Johnson-Mazwi

News Editor