President Cyril Ramaphosa gave local authorities 60 days to audit where women face danger and ordered police and prosecutors to re-examine unresolved violent crime cases within 90 days. He announced the measures in a televised national address on Tuesday, September 29, after at least 11 women had been killed in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, since July.
The Measures
The centerpiece is a nationwide women’s safety audit. Local authorities must identify dangerous and high-risk areas, including places with broken streetlights, abandoned buildings and poorly secured parks. Those are basic municipal failures—the neglected infrastructure local governments are supposed to maintain.
The second order targets the justice system directly. Police and the National Prosecuting Authority have 90 days to review unresolved cases. The review covers murders, attempted murders, rapes and other gender-based violence cases. Ramaphosa said authorities would follow the audits with funded plans to address identified hotspots and backlogs in solving gender-based violence crimes.
He also said a high-level investigating team had taken on the Ekurhuleni killings.
The Investigation
Residents are frightened. Authorities discovered the body of the 11th victim on Sunday, and Ekurhuleni remained on high alert as they investigated whether a serial killer or killers were responsible. Ramaphosa said police had arrested four suspects. In some cases, he said, police had identified persons of interest and collected forensic material, including DNA, blood samples, clothing, cellphones and cellphone records.
Police haven't confirmed that the killings were linked.
The president didn't soften his assessment of the state’s record. “This cannot be accepted as a normal part of life in South Africa,” Ramaphosa said. “We must confront an uncomfortable truth. What we have done has not been enough.”
The Broader Picture
The numbers behind the address are sobering. South Africa recorded 5,427 homicides from April to July, according to official crime statistics. UN Women, the United Nations agency for gender equality, says the country’s femicide rate ranks among the highest in the world. A 2022 study by a South African think tank found that more than 35% of South African adult women had experienced physical or sexual violence at some point.
Ramaphosa noted that most women who experience such violence know their attackers. He called on men to lead the fight against gender-based violence. “Women change their routes home, avoid going out at night and warn one another about dangerous places and dangerous men,” he said. “We have placed the burden of male violence on women.”
Why This Matters:
The core issue is whether government can do its basic job: catch criminals, prosecute them and keep public spaces safe. Ramaphosa’s own words concede that past efforts fell short, and the order to review unresolved cases puts police and prosecutors on a 90-day clock. The announcement, as reported, puts no figure on the funded plans that will follow the audits, so taxpayers don’t yet know the cost. The measure of success will be arrests, convictions and cleared backlogs, not the number of reviews completed. Ramaphosa’s call for men to lead the response also points to personal responsibility, something no audit can legislate. Whether those deadlines produce results will show how much confidence South Africans can place in their institutions.