Police Minister Senzo Mchunu has revealed that at least 110 women have been murdered in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) since the beginning of October 2024.

Mchunu was in the Eastern Cape on Monday during the ministerial safer festive season operations inspection tour.

KZN has been in the news recently amid reports of men killing their partners.

Women murdered

In a case that caused an uproar last week, Sibusiso Lawrence confessed to killing his partner, 25-year-old Nontobeko Cele, in Umzinto, and posted pictures of her body on social media.

He was later found dead not far from the murder scene.

On Monday morning, an 18-year-old teenager was beaten and strangled to death in Harding, allegedly by her 33-year-old boyfriend, who has been arrested.

In another incident in Umkomaas, another young woman and her three-year-old son were stabbed to death by the father of the child. The man was later found hanging from a tree.

According to Mchunu, since 1 October 2024, 110 women were murdered in KwaZulu-Natal.

Of these, 64 were shot and killed, 24 were stabbed to death, 15 were beaten to death, four suffered blunt force trauma, and three others were burned to death.

“Crimes against women and children remain an area of concern in this province. In the past week alone, a number of young women have lost their lives at the hands of their partners,” said Mchunu.

“Of concern is that the majority of these women were killed by people known to them. As the police ministry, we reaffirm our commitment [to] putting an end to the scourge of Gender Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) in the country.”

Active communities

Mchunu called on communities to report incidents of abuse to ensure that police or other authorities respond timeously to save more lives.

“The fact that these crimes happen behind closed doors and between intimate partners makes it a challenge for police to detect – those closer and are in reach of these victims like family members – ought to work closely with the police and report these matters timeously,” said Mchunu.

“We need full and maximum cooperation from families, friends, neighbours and everyone in communities – who are aware of the abuse of young women.”

National picture

The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) revealed during its briefing to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development last month that femicide investigations are increasingly failing to identify who is killing women in South Africa.

Its 2020/2021 research study showed that the percentage of femicide cases where investigations failed to identify a perpetrator increased to 44%, up from 30% in 2017.

In cases where perpetrators were identified between 2009 and 2020/2021, intimate partners were the most common offenders.

The research also reveals that three women are killed per day by an intimate partner. This as one in four women reported experiences of physical and sexual abuse.

There was no difference in the estimated number of women killed in 2017 (2,407) and in 2020/21 (2, 409), which is nearly 7 women a day in South Africa.

The Eastern Cape was the province with the highest rates of femicide, followed by KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Gauteng.