African Rights Body Says South Africa Needs Multifaceted Response to Gender-Based Violence as Victim's Remains Return Home
On October 3, 2026, SABC News' morning headlines reported that the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights says South Africa needs a multifaceted response to the escalating scourge of gender-based violence and femicide. The African Union body had met with government, civil society, NGOs and other key stakeholders on a crisis often described in South Africa as a second pandemic.
The same morning brought a story that has gripped the country: the remains of 42-year-old Nomfesane Mjobo were returned to her home village of Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape, where devastated loved ones gathered to receive them ahead of her funeral. Mjobo was one of several women whose bodies were discovered across Ekurhuleni in Gauteng in recent months. Investigations into the deaths are continuing, and police had not named suspects in the headline reports.
Gender-based violence in South Africa has deep structural roots, and the handling of cases by police and prosecutors has long drawn criticism; only the day before, the week-long National Inquiry on gender-based violence and femicide ended in Johannesburg with the National Prosecuting Authority and the SAPS criticised for their case handling. Activists say images of a victim's remains travelling home across provinces encapsulate a tragedy repeated in countless South African families.
Politically, parties were campaigning for the November 4 local elections, with basic services and job creation the day's promises, while women's safety weighs increasingly heavily in community politics. Women's safety also featured in grassroots campaigning that day.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：南非议会大厦（开普敦）。摄影：Discott，CC BY-SA 4.0，来源：Wikimedia Commons
