Ramaphosa addresses the nation at 19:00 on the Ekurhuleni killings
Cabinet says it has been tracking gender-based violence for more than four months, and the National Assembly is expected to debate it as a matter of national importance.
President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the nation at 19:00 on Tuesday evening on the steps government is taking against gender-based violence and femicide, and on the investigations into the recent murders of women in and around Ekurhuleni.
As CapeTown ETC reported on 29 September, the announcement was made by Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshaveni at a post-Cabinet media briefing earlier on Tuesday. The SABC will provide a broadcast feed to media, and the Presidency will livestream the address on its digital platforms.
The killings in and around Ekurhuleni are crimes. Murder is unlawful under South African law, and so is assault, intimidation and the unlawful deprivation of liberty. The state is the only body that may investigate and prosecute them, which is what the update on investigations is meant to cover.
Cabinet has condemned the violence and appealed to communities to report domestic abuse and other forms of violence. Ntshaveni told the briefing that government has been monitoring issues around gender-based violence for more than four months. That work includes examining who is committing sexual offences, with particular concern about the involvement of young people in sex-related crimes.
Government says the responsibility for preventing gender-based violence cannot rest with the police alone. Research indicates that women are often at greater risk of violence from people they know, which places renewed attention on what happens behind closed doors and within families. Ntshaveni urged families, neighbours and communities to take a more active role in identifying and reporting abuse.
That point lands differently in a country where the home is not always the safest place. For a woman experiencing violence at home, silence can make an already dangerous situation harder to escape, and the people closest to her are often the first who could act. Reporting an abuser to the police is the step the law provides for, and the state carries the duty to investigate it.
The National Assembly is also expected to debate gender-based violence as a matter of national importance. That debate puts the issue in front of the legislature, where the laws and the budgets that shape the response are made.
What a South African reader will notice is the timing. The address comes after a recent spate of murders involving women in Ekurhuleni, and it follows more than four months of government monitoring. Cabinet’s appeal to communities to report abuse is the part that reaches households directly, because it asks neighbours and relatives to act on what they see rather than leave it to the police alone.
The address is scheduled for 19:00. The SABC feed and the Presidency livestream mean it will be available to anyone with a radio, a television or a phone.
The Enquirer will carry the substance of the address and the detail of the investigation update once it has been delivered.
