We Welcome the President’s Response to Femicide, but Much More Must Be Done

1 October 2026
Abahlali baseMjondolo Women’s League Press Statement

We Welcome the President’s Response to Femicide, but Much More Must Be Done

On 28 September 2026, after 11 women had been murdered in Ekurhuleni since July, Abahlali baseMjondolo and other residents of Ekurhuleni marched in Kempton Park against the killing of women and the failure of the police to adequately protect women from violence. We handed a memorandum to the Kempton Park Police Station and Ekurhuleni District Management.

We demanded:

•⁠ ⁠A public report on the investigations into the 11 murders, presented at an open public meeting.
•⁠ ⁠A well-funded and properly equipped women-led GBV task team for the townships and shack settlements of Ekurhuleni.
•⁠ ⁠A 24-hour Victim Support Room at Kempton Park Police Station with properly trained female officers.
•⁠ ⁠Daily visible and women-friendly policing in high-risk areas, with additional patrols at night and on weekends.
•⁠ ⁠A public audit of all GBV cases reported in Ekurhuleni since July.
•⁠ ⁠An open public meeting at which the police must account to the women of Ekurhuleni for failures in responding to GBV and femicide.
•⁠ ⁠The election of a women’s committee to which the police must report every week on their work relating to GBV and femicide.

We therefore welcome much of what President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in his address to the nation on 29 September.

The investigation into the Ekurhuleni killings has been elevated to the national level, a specialised multidisciplinary investigation is under way and visible policing in Ekurhuleni has been increased.

The President also announced a national case-recovery operation for unresolved murders, attempted murders, rapes and serious sexual offences involving women and children. The commitment to audit unresolved cases, identify delays and establish recovery plans for stalled cases is in accordance with the demands that we made in Kempton Park.

He made a commitment to address forensic backlogs, give urgent priority to forensic evidence in cases involving the rape and murder of women and children, and report publicly on progress.

The President has also made it clear that women must not be turned away by the police, that protection orders must be enforced, that dockets must not disappear and that women reporting violence must be treated with dignity. These are all issues raised directly in our memorandum.

Along with all these measures we strongly welcome the announcement that every municipality must conduct a women’s safety audit. Broken streetlights, unsafe transport routes, abandoned buildings and neglected public spaces all place women in danger. In shack settlements a lack of lighting, unsafe or absent toilets and unsafe routes through our communities put women and girls at risk every day. We need safe and reliable public transport, including at night and early in the morning, and safe routes between our homes, transport stops, workplaces, schools and shops.

We strongly support the President’s recognition that harmful alcohol use is ‘a significant aggravating factor in interpersonal violence’, his call for the stronger enforcement of liquor laws and his instruction that a package of laws and enforcement measures to reduce alcohol-related violence be put before Cabinet within 60 days. This must include reducing the excessive concentration of alcohol outlets, restricting trading hours and enforcing clear closing times, tighter licensing controls, and much stronger regulation of alcohol advertising, promotion and sponsorship. Government must regulate the alcohol industry and resist corporate pressure to weaken, delay or block effective regulation. The long-delayed Liquor Amendment Bill should be revived and debated urgently. Serious regulation of the alcohol industry is a critical part of the struggle against violence in general.

But much more needs to be done.

Women cannot just be called to meetings to be informed about decisions that have already been taken for us without us. Women must have real power and working class and poor women, who are the majority, must have real power.

This is why our memorandum demanded an elected women’s committee to which each police station must report every week. Democratically organised women must be able to demand information about investigations, police response times, missing dockets, failures to enforce protection orders and complaints against police.

Every woman must also have the right to know who is investigating her case, how to contact them, what has been done, what still has to be done, where the evidence is, why there has been a delay and where she can go if an investigation is being obstructed.

Women’s own assessment of danger must be taken seriously. Police must respond urgently to assault, stalking, death threats, forced entry, threats with weapons and violations of protection orders.

Women reporting violence should have the right to be accompanied by someone they trust. We should not have to repeat traumatic experiences again and again to different officials. As far as possible, one properly trained person or team should take responsibility for a case.

We know from our own experience that police power can also be abused. We have seen police refuse to open cases, fail to act against politically connected people and use their powers against impoverished people and activists. Our movement has repeatedly confronted police repression and police violence, including assault, wrongful arrest, wrongful imprisonment, torture and murder. Our comrades killed by the police include Nqobile Nzuza, a seventeen-year-old woman shot in the back in Cato Crest in 2013, and Jayden Khoza, a two weeks old baby, who died after the police fired teargas into the Foreman Road settlement in 2017.

Visible policing and stronger action against gender-based violence must not become a licence to criminalise poor people, migrants, activists and other people already subjected to police abuse.

There must be genuinely independent investigation when police officers lose evidence, take bribes, protect perpetrators or obstruct investigations. This is especially important when police officers themselves are accused of domestic violence, sexual violence, abuse of sex workers or femicide. Their colleagues cannot be allowed to protect them.

There must also be more women in operational and senior leadership positions in the police, with real opportunities for advancement. Gender transformation cannot mean putting some women behind victim-support desks while the culture and leadership of policing remain unchanged.

We need stronger obligations on the police, much stronger democratic control over the police and effective independent oversight. We need policing centred on protection, service and problem-solving, not an aggressive model of policing that criminalises vulnerable people and communities.

We propose the creation of an independent and feminist Women’s Ombud for Policing. The Women’s Ombud should have the power to obtain police records, inspect police stations, investigate corruption and misconduct, publish findings and refer criminal and disciplinary matters for action. Women must be able to approach the Women’s Ombud directly, and the Women’s Ombud must work with organised women and democratic community structures.

Women’s safety goes far beyond policing. Women escaping violence need somewhere safe to stay. They need healthcare, counselling, legal assistance, transport and childcare.

Economic independence is also part of women’s safety. A woman may know that she needs to leave a violent man but have no income of her own, nowhere else to live and children who depend on her. Women need decent work, decent wages, secure housing, childcare and social protection. We support a liveable guaranteed income. No woman should have to remain with a violent man because leaving him will mean hunger and homelessness.

We must also build democratic and feminist women’s power in our own communities.

We need to support women who are in danger, accompany them when they need support, help them get somewhere safe and make sure that nobody is left alone because they do not have money or family support. We need to make sure that every woman has a space where she can speak freely about the problems she is facing and receive support.

We must confront perpetrators in our own communities. Families, communities and all kinds of organisations, including churches, can reproduce patriarchy. The struggle against violence against women must confront patriarchy everywhere, including in our homes, communities, schools, workplaces, trade unions, political organisations and churches.

We as poor women refuse to be silent. We are mothers, neighbours, comrades and leaders and we are demanding to be safe, to be heard, to be alive and to build a socialist future together.

Womandla!

Contact:

Snenhlanhla Mncanyana 073 832 3331
Melita Ngcobo 078 297 0099
Lerato Boloka 078 445 1320