A total of 119 women were murdered in Cape Town, South Africa between this and last year's Women's Day (August 11). Exactly half were killed by their partners and 25 percent were sexually assaulted before their deaths. Even more disturbing, for forensic pathologists who examine the battered and broken bodies, is the increasing brutality of the attacks. This was the somber assessment according to Helen Bamford of the Cape Argus newspaper.
Professor Lorna Martin, head of the University of Cape Town's department of forensic medicine and toxicology, said South Africans were committing murders with such violence they shocked even hardened pathologists. Martin, who is a chief specialist in the provincial department of health, said some days it was "like carnage". "One woman was stabbed 104 times; a 13-year-old was stabbed 23 times, then had her throat slit. We had a gunshot case last week where the victim had been shot 17 times."
Martin, who is an international rape homicide specialist, has worked on a number of high-profile cases including that of Marike de Klerk, ex-wife of former president FW de Klerk. It was Martin who testified in court that the former first lady had been raped before being murdered at her luxury Dolphin Beach flat in 2001.
According to Martin, violent crime in South Africa is not in line with international trends. "Even 20 years ago we were not this violent," she said. "People have no respect for humanity." Referring to Women's Day, she said there was not much to celebrate. "And I can't see anyone doing anything but paying lip service to the issue." She said August was always a "let's be nice to women" month, yet when it came to money for research everyone was loathe to contribute.
Martin also expressed her dismay at Wednesday's axing of former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. In a hard-hitting statement she said Madlala-Routledge had not only been instrumental in advocating the long-overdue position of providing appropriate anti-retroviral drugs to the thousands of people suffering from Aids, but had understood the impact that violence against women had on the increasing levels of HIV among females.
"To fire one of the few people representing the national government who has made substantive contributions to the eradication of violence against women seems such a backward move. I am simply aghast," she said.
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