Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
femicidelatest news & developments
Reverend Jesse Jackson.
BLACK PRESIDENT OF AMERICA

Born out of bondage, Jesse Jackson dies a master of social justice

He fought tooth and nail so that the transatlantic slave trade should not repeat itself anywhere, where our people faced brutal conditions and many lost their lives

  • Sello Shai-Morule
3 min read
Poet and healer: vangile gantsho, says the G20 Women’s National Shutdown campaign is essential due to the lack of safety of women in South Africa. Photo: Gerard Nartey Photography
ARTS AND ACTIVISM

This is an emergency: The G20 women’s shutdown and the crisis SA can’t ignore

A nationwide shutdown on 21 November demands GBVF be declared a National Disaster, confronting government inaction as the world’s leaders arrive

  • Rolland Simpi Motaung
8 min read
Demanding change: Women across South Africa are stepping back from work on Friday to draw attention to the country’s rising levels of gender-based violence. This comes as heads of state, ministers and delegations arrive in South Africa for the G20 summit. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy
DESMOND TUTU FOUNDATION

National shutdown to put spotlight on gender violence on eve of G20 summit

Advocacy group Women for Change argues that South Africa ‘cannot host the world’s most powerful leaders while a woman is killed every two-and-a-half hours’

  • Hasina Kathrada
6 min read
South Africa has normalised heavy drinking and policy alone won’t change that – it has to be a cultural shift. Photo: File
ABUSE

Stop ignoring the heavy drinking red flags

It will take more than policy to change South Africans’ excessive use of alcohol; we all need to take part in the Sober Curious movement

  • Zimasa Mpemnyama
3 min read
DATA

Data as a defence against femicide in South Africa

I have just returned from the sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. In 2025, members of the…

  • Tirhani Manganyi, Programmes Manager, GBVF Response Fund
6 min read
The lived reality for women in South Africa is they get turned away at our police stations. They are told that domestic violence is a family matter. They are sent from one office to another. If they do actually get someone willing to open their case, the case files disappear into delay
EASTERN CAPE

Here’s where women in SA are most likely to be murdered

Seven women are killed in the country each day and nearly six in 10 of such murders are at the hand of an intimate partner

  • Linda Pretorius
9 min read
FEMICIDE

Austerity is a silent war on survivors of gender-based violence

The support systems that GBV survivors depend on are being damaged by cost cuts, making it harder for them to escape violence and seek justice

  • Kerryn Rehse
4 min read
Have we made progress as a society in terms of women’s rights?
ABUSE

Women’s rights: Insidious discrimination an affront to collective humanity

It is up to actors at all levels of society to rescue institutionalised prejudice that undermines the freedom and dignity of women and girls

  • Nontobeko Gcabashe
5 min read
Stop killing us: Five times as many South African women are killed by intimate partners than the global average; women with disabilities are 10 times more vulnerable. Photo Sharon Seretlo/Getty Images
BLIND

Getting a sense: The issues blind women and girls face

We must recognise the intersectional issues that different communities face if we are to address gender-based violence adequately This content is restricted to registered users…

  • Aarti Bhana
1 min read
UN Security Council
FEMICIDE

Africa must have permanent representation on UN Security Council

The British high commissioner to South Africa reflects on the value of the United Nations for the UK and South Africa to achieve shared objectives

  • Antony Phillipson
5 min read
‘Bitter Sweet Distractor 2023’
ART

‘Bitches Brew: Fast, feminist and furious

In their exhibition ‘Bitches Brew’, three South African artists juggle good manners and the grotesque

  • Kimberley Schoeman
6 min read
Violence: #SayHer1019 by Kilmany-Jo Liversage emphasises sorry by Penny Siopis depicts victims’ feeling of shame that often accompanies abuse.
ACTIVISM

Art of activism: 16 artists against gender violence

Artists whose work speaks against gender violence is art as activism that shows the need for more than 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence

  • Kimberley Schoeman
8 min read
Despite strong legislation, South Africa is failing to address its unacceptable rates of woman abuse. (Nardus Engelbrecht/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
FEMICIDE

Tackling gender-based violence and femicide requires collective effort

Government and civil society need to listen to those who are most at risk to ensure policies are effective

  • Phinah Kodisang
9 min read
Despite strong legislation, South Africa is failing to address its unacceptable rates of woman abuse. (Nardus Engelbrecht/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
COVID 19

Criminalising gender-based violence is not enough

Despite strong legislation, South Africa is failing to address its unacceptable rates of woman abuse

  • Deepa Vallabh
5 min read
The lived reality for women in South Africa is they get turned away at our police stations. They are told that domestic violence is a family matter. They are sent from one office to another. If they do actually get someone willing to open their case, the case files disappear into delay
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Gender-based violence shelters go without critical government funding

Nonprofit organisations that provide trauma counselling and shelter to survivors of rape and violence have had to shut their doors

  • Marcia Zali
2 min read
Policing receives the most complaints regarding corruption
CAPE TOWN

Police pursuing ‘specific lead’ in Khayelitsha triple murder

Suspects still at large following the execution-style killing of three women aged 17, 20 and 21

  • Eunice Masson
1 min read
High-risk areas are concentrated in townships and informal settlements, including Khayelitsha, Crossroads, Philippi and Gugulethu.
ALBERT FRITZ

Triple murder in Khayelitsha investigated by police

Three young women have been shot dead execution-style in one of Cape Town’s gang-riddled communities

  • Eunice Masson
1 min read
Vuyokazi Yvone Mathebula, whose younger sister Nonhle Gloria Aphane was murdered in June, comforts one of Aphane’s three children. (Ihsaan Haffejee)
FEMICIDE

For many South African women, home is hell

Gender-based violence often takes place at home or in intimate relationships, taking a traumatic toll on victims, their families and friends

  • Magnificent Mndebele
7 min read
Honouring the dead: A memorial to gay rights activist and Banyana star Eudy Simelane. Two men were convicted and jailed for her murder. (Mduduzi Ndzingi/Gallo Images/Drum)
BLACK LESBIANS

Hate killings of black lesbians in South Africa: 2008 to 2018

The second part of an edited extract from Femicide in South Africa (Kwela) by Nechama Brodie lists the names of black lesbians who were murdered, allegedly because of their…

  • Nechama Brodie
13 min read
Celebrating justice: Women’s rights activists outside the Khayelitsha magistrate’s court in 2012 at the sentencing of Zoliswa Nkonyana’s killers. Four men were sentenced to 18 years in jail each for the February 2006 murder of the 19-year-old lesbian. (Shelley Christians/ Gallo Images/The Times)
AIDS DENIALISM

‘We only write about them when they are dead’: Hate killings of black lesbians in South Africa

In her book ‘Femicide in South Africa’, journalist and researcher Nechama Brodie examines the violent history the country’s black lesbians have endured

  • Nechama Brodie
10 min read