Lebogang Ramafoko, an advocate for gender and social justice, said the levels of violence against women in the country were symptomatic of a much bigger problem – a lack of regard for humanity.
“The bodies of black women have been treated as disposable in this country for time immemorial, passed down from colonisation through to apartheid,” she tells the BBC, referring to the legalised system of racism that was in place until 1994.
“What we see happening to women is testimony to legacies of violence from those systems whose traumas were never addressed.
“This is not to say black men are inherently violent, but in systems where violence was meted out against them for decades, historically black women were the people that that violence would be taken out on – that cycle has not been broken.”
In Kempton Park, a district of Ekurhuleni where five of the nine recent bodies were found, Lumka Maqhubela is part of the Girl2Woman Foundation group which has held protests to raise awareness of the crimes.
“We are grieved, we are scared,” she says. “If the police cannot protect us any more the government should step in and do something.
“It’s clear that we are not safe, we cannot be told by the police to be more vigilant. They should be doing more to make our communities safe – what else are we expected to do? We are not safe anywhere, not in our homes, not in the streets, it needs to stop.”
“I feel uncomfortable,” says Thulisile Sibande, 32. “When I go to a shop, I have to look around. I’m shocked and scared. So scared, it’s a trauma.”
Thembi Mabena, 60, tells the BBC she lived in the same neighbourhood as Dineo Motapane.
“She was laughing every day, with everybody,” she remembers. “Now I’m worried.
“I know many children, girls, who tell me they are afraid to go to the shop alone. There is no safety, even for me too. I am old, but there is no safety.”
“In South Africa,” says Lerato Mzizi, 20, simply, “women are not safe any more.”
