JOHANNESBURG – The discovery of additional bodies in Ekurhuleni has brought the total number of women murdered in the region to nine, a grim milestone that has sent shockwaves across South Africa and reignited a fierce national debate over the state’s failure to curb the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF).
As police increase visibility and investigative resources in Kempton Park and surrounding areas, the rising death toll has pushed the country to a breaking point. With emotions running high, public discourse has shifted toward radical demands, including renewed calls from some quarters—and even subtle legislative interest—for the reintroduction of the death penalty.
While President Cyril Ramaphosa has championed the push for harsher prison conditions and life sentences for perpetrators, legal and social experts warn that retributive justice alone is a dangerous, insufficient “medicine” for a much deeper societal sickness.
“Anger must not displace reason,” argues legal analyst Lehumo Sejaphala. “Reintroducing capital punishment would not necessarily address the causes of violence, and it would create the irreversible possibility of wrongful executions. More fundamentally, there is no convincing basis for assuming that inflicting greater violence through punishment will, by itself, eliminate violence in society.”
The 2024 South African National Gender-Based Violence Study offers a sobering counter-narrative to the idea that violence is an inherent trait of men. Instead, the data suggests that violence is a learned, intergenerational cycle. The study highlights that men who experienced childhood trauma, bullying, or were raised in households where the abuse of women was normalized, are significantly more likely to become perpetrators.
However, the problem transcends household upbringing. The study identifies a “crisis of masculinity” fueled by poverty and unemployment, where men unable to fulfill the traditional, socially-constructed role of the “breadwinner” may turn to violence as a destructive method of asserting authority.
Crucially, researchers caution against viewing this solely as a problem of the marginalized. The data shows that high education and wealth do not equate to safety for women. Many perpetrators—regardless of socio-economic status—harbor deep-seated, inequitable views on power, including the belief that intimacy grants a man ownership over a woman’s body. Nearly one in ten men surveyed agreed that a woman is to blame for being raped if she does not physically fight back, exposing a systemic cultural rot that transcends wealth or class.
As the state ramps up forensic and police capacity in Gauteng, activists are calling for a dual approach: immediate, competent criminal justice intervention paired with long-term, structural reform.
“Laws alone are not sufficient to change the norms that normalize violence,” says Sejaphala. “We need a criminal justice system that protects women, but we also need a society that confronts harmful attitudes and restores dignity to communities that have been deprived of hope.”
For now, the nine families grieving in Ekurhuleni serve as a harrowing reminder that unless South Africa moves beyond reactionary measures, the cycle of violence will continue to claim the lives of its women.
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