South Africa faces an ongoing crisis of gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide, highlighted by the recent discovery of nine murdered women in Ekurhuleni and Kempton Park, east of Johannesburg. Several bodies were found half-naked, decomposed, battered, or burned. Three suspects were arrested.
In Namibia, femicide and gender-based violence (GBV) are critical national crises, driven largely by intimate male-partner violence and deep-seated structural inequalities. The country has a sad history of femicide.
The B1 Butcher is the moniker given to an unidentified serial killer who terrorised the capital city by murdering and dismembering at least five women between 2005 and 2007.
The killer primarily targeted vulnerable women, depositing their body parts in rubbish bins and lay-bys along the B1 and B2 highways.
A key suspect in the timeline was an ex-convict who committed suicide in 2008. The gruesome string of murders abruptly ceased after his death.
Femicide is the intentional killing of women or girls because of their gender.
This is the most extreme and brutal form of violence against women and girls. It is driven by gender discrimination, unequal power relations, harmful social norms, and male entitlement. Most perpetrators of these heinous crimes are a current or former intimate partner or family member. It often follows a history of domestic abuse, sexual violence, stalking or coercive control in the home. Other forms include non-intimate killings, targeted violence in conflicts, or gender-based hate crimes.
Femicide global dimension
Femicide is a global crisis that affects women and girls in every country or territory.
According to the new report by Femicide, the UN Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), and UN Women, released in 2024, Africa recorded the highest absolute and relative numbers of female intimate partner and family-related killings, with an estimated 000 victims (three victims per 100 000). The Americas and Oceania also recorded high rates of intimate partner or family-related femicide in 2024 (at 1.5 and 1.4 per 100 000, respectively), while the rates were significantly lower in Asia and Europe (at 0.7 and 0.5 per 100, respectively).
In addition, the report confirms that femicide shows no signs of slowing down. Every 10 minutes, a woman is intentionally killed by a partner or family member.
While there has been growing awareness and public outcry against these killings, much more needs to be done to prevent violence against women, halt its escalation, provide adequate services to survivors and punish perpetrators. The report also highlighted that around 50 000 women and girls worldwide were killed by their intimate partners or other family members, including fathers, mothers, uncles and brothers.
This means that, on average, 137 women or girls are killed every day by someone in their own family, and that intimate partners and other family members were the perpetrators of 60% of killings of women and girls globally.
Prominent historic cases of femicide
Historical and epigraphic records document gender-based killings dating back to antiquity, though they were rarely recorded as specific crimes against women until modern times.
Several notable serial killings and high-profile cases involved the murders of women in England during the 1980s and 1990s. Fred and Rose West tortured, raped, and murdered multiple young women and girls, including members of their own family. Their home was dubbed “House of Horror”. Rose West was convicted of 10 murders in 1975.
Fred West died by suicide while awaiting trial.
Peter Sutcliffe (The Yorkshire Ripper) murdered 13 women and attempted to kill several others across Yorkshire and Manchester.
A 2018 UK femicide report found that men who had already killed women were killing again, that in over half of cases (52%) the perpetrators had previously been violent towards women, and that as many as 61% of killings were committed by a current or former partner.
Also, starting in the 1990s, hundreds of women and girls disappeared and were found tortured and murdered in Ciudad Juarez (Mexico).
The complete lack of state intervention led activists to coin and strongly advocate the term feminicidio.
This eventually resulted in a landmark 2009 ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (the “Cotton Field” / Campo Algoderero case), which legally recognised femicide and held the Mexican state accountable for failing to prevent it.
These cases are historically important because they exposed to the world profound, systemic flaws in early policing, societal attitudes, and the criminal justice systems.
In response to these historical failures, police forces around the world have since modernised major-crime investigation, data management, and victim advocacy.
In closing, addressing femicide requires action across core pillars, viz., prevention, legislation, data collection, support services, and a coordinated response across the legal system and community actions.
Gender-related killings and other forms of violence against women and girls are not inevitable.
Often, femicide is the culmination of repeated and escalating episodes of gender-based violence, which means it can and must be prevented if the early signs of violence are addressed effectively. Initiatives that focus on primary prevention, changing social norms, and engaging whole communities to create a zero tolerance for violence against women and girls work best in preventing gender-related killings.
We recognise the critical role of sex inequalities; we have drawn all the lessons and made all the recommendations. What we now need is implementation and the resources that go with it.
We need to make ambitious changes to women’s status in society and to men’s entitlement. We need to robustly challenge sex-role stereotypes.
And we need women to be respected and valued, and perpetrators to be held accountable.
*Maj. Gen. (Rtd) J. B. Tjivikua is a Criminal Intelligence Analyst.
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