Femicide is the most extreme form of gender-based violence (GBV) and South Africa has the highest rates of femicide in the world. Bemoaning an-other femicide is the new normal in the country, yet in our outrage we must not lose sight of the fact that femicide is preventable. The Gender & Health Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council has been studying femicide in South Africa for more than 20 years. In 1999 we showed four women were killed every day by their husband or boyfriend (intimate partner), which decreased to three women a day in 2009. Our third study in 2017 showed levels of intimate partner femicide remained unchanged and we continued to have three women killed per day by an intimate partner.

In this research brief we show findings of the 4th national femicide study, which coincided, with the first year of COVID-19 (April 2020-March 2021).

View or download the complete Research Brief: 20 Years of Femicide Research in South Africa