Ramaphosa asks South African men to stop looking away

South Africa has once again been forced into the familiar ritual of outrage, mourning and official promises. After 11 women’s bodies were found in Ekurhuleni since 15 July, President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on men to challenge violence against women and announced new steps meant to show that the state is, at last, paying attention.

Ramaphosa said police would review unsolved murders, attempted murders and serious sexual offences against women and children within 60 days, alongside a funded plan to reduce the forensic backlog in such cases. Local governments, meanwhile, have been given five months to deal with the conditions that make women less safe: broken streetlights, overgrown public spaces and abandoned buildings. Five ministers were also told to produce, within 60 days, a plan to reduce alcohol-fuelled violence.

The president’s speech was blunt enough, though the problem is hardly a shortage of political rhetoric in South Africa. Ramaphosa stressed that while alcohol does not cause gender-based violence and can never excuse it—with responsibility always lying squarely with the perpetrator—harmful alcohol use remains a significant aggravating factor. He added that women should not have to live in fear simply because the government fails to repair a light, clear a public space, process evidence or enforce the law.

The killings have shaken the country, especially after eight of the 11 bodies were found in the last three weeks. Among them was Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo, who was found on 12 September after going missing when she went for a run after work. Ramaphosa said suspects had been arrested in connection with three of the killings, and insisted that the other cases would not be allowed to go cold. Police, he added, had not found evidence that a serial killer was behind all 11 deaths, though all possibilities remained under investigation.

The president also directed his appeal directly at South African men, urging them to confront relatives, friends and colleagues who harass, humiliate or abuse women, insisting that it is time for good men to end their silence. For too long, he said, gender-based violence has been treated as a women’s problem to solve, with women organising, protesting and altering their daily routines while the burden of male violence stayed where it should never have been placed: on the victims.

Activists, unsurprisingly, are not rushing to applaud. Shenilla Mohamed, executive director of Amnesty International South Africa, noted that the country has been discussing these failures since 2019, when women took to the streets, yet the attacks continue unabated. She stressed that the announced deadlines would matter only if they resulted in real action and concrete consequences for official inaction.

Sonke Gender Justice was equally sceptical. Representatives Mpiwa Mangwiro-Tsanga and Bafana Khumalo observed that the government's response remains heavily weighted toward what happens after violence has already occurred. Investigating unresolved cases, processing forensic evidence and repairing unsafe public spaces are necessary, they pointed out, but they do not constitute a comprehensive prevention strategy. They also noted that asking municipalities to deliver on their existing statutory duties merely highlights how thoroughly local authorities have failed to perform them.

The real test is whether these deadlines mean anything beyond another round of official concern. South Africa does not lack task forces, speeches or grief. What it lacks is the unglamorous business of competent enforcement, basic municipal upkeep and consequences when state institutions fail women again and again.

Written by Andreas Hofer andreas.hofer@alpineweekly.com