Mpumelelo Ncube
Femicide has become a defining feature of the South African social landscape, warranting urgent and sustained attention from the social sciences.
Tragically, the country has emerged as one of the global epicentres of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF). This endemic phenomenon calls upon scholars and practitioners not only to analyse, but to assist society in contextualising and resolving it.Disunity sinks Africa
Femicide refers to the gender-based killing of women, primarily by men – often in the context of intimate partner violence (IPV). It is also in broader socio-spatial settings where women are rendered vulnerable. This phenomenon is both a symptom and an outcome of deeply entrenched patriarchal structures, systemic gender inequalities, and moral decay within society.
Olorato Mongale’s brutal murder evoked profound memories of a similar trauma my family endured in August 2019. My sister had taken a day off from work due to illness and was at home with her domestic worker. A young man had been contracted to repair leaking roof tiles and arrived with a male relative to assist him. Unbeknownst to the two women, they had effectively let their murderers into their home.
What followed was an act of unimaginable violence. The domestic worker was stabbed and burned beyond recognition in her living quarters. My sister was strangled in her sitting room. Although petrol had been poured over her body, the fire failed to ignite. Ironically, one of the assailants sustained burn injuries in the attempt. A swift intervention by the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department and the police led to the arrest of the perpetrators shortly thereafter.
However, justice was partial and uneven. While one was eventually handed two life terms, the other was acquitted due to prosecutorial inadequacies, despite compelling physical evidence linking him to the crime.
Such partial justice, while technically consistent with the rule of law, exposes deficiencies in South Africa’s criminal justice system, particularly in its response to GBVF. This systemic failure compounds pain experienced by bereaved families as they grapple not only with loss, but also with the knowledge that impunity persists.
The onslaught continues as countless women are murdered in spaces once considered safe: homes, post offices, workplaces, educational institutions, taxis, and communities both urban and rural.
For my family, the grief has become a permanent wound, one that is managed but never healed. For the families of Mongale and Lukhona Fose (14), including many others, the pain remains raw and immediate.
The post-traumatic experience of femicide victims’ families is marked by psychological distress, unresolved grief, and existential questioning. The social support structures that may surround families immediately after the tragedy eventually fade. This experience is not unique. It resonates across the country, in both known and undocumented cases. Often, these murders do not even make it into the public domain.
For many families, the failure of the state to provide effective justice is further aggravated when perpetrators are released after serving minimal sentences, due in part to the principles of restorative justice. While such principles have merit in contexts where rehabilitation and reintegration are feasible, their application in the context of femicide, where the ultimate price has been exacted, can be ethically and emotionally problematic for the bereaved.
South Africa’s femicide crisis is multi-layered. The call for a national dialogue on femicide is therefore more than a call for awareness. It is one of social transformation, a reimagining of how society addresses power, justice, gender, and morality. As social scientists, we must interrogate not only the structural conditions that perpetuate violence, but also the epistemological, spiritual and cultural tools available within African worldviews to reconstruct a moral order.
■ Prof. Mpumelelo Ncube is the head of the Department of Social Work at the University of the Free State (UFS).
