Following the tragic domestic violence and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) associated murder of a woman in Mahikeng last week, yet another reprehensible and tragic murder and suicide incident has been reported to the police in Phokeng at midday on Tuesday, 28 April 2025. The case was reported by the neighbour, following the gruesome discovery of the lifeless bodies of a couple in their home at Moime section in Serutube village. The female victim, aged 42, suffered and succumbed to serious injuries and the male partner (perpetrator), aged 65, was found hanging from the rafters.
The police are concerned about the high rate of domestic violence and gender based violence and femicide related crimes which are unfortunately blamed and wrongly attributed to poor, inadequate or ineffective Policing.
The Acting Provincial Police Commissioner, Major General Patrick Asaneng, said that no amount of police stations, Victim Friendly Rooms, serving of protection orders or police visibility patrols are going to eradicate the societal ills of domestic violence and gender based violence, which are perpetrated inside homes, in schools and in some instances by fake traditional healers and in places of worship by pastors.
“What is disturbing and deeply concerning is that when these incidents occur and are reported, the communities, social commentators, civil rights activists, social and mainstream media immediately get into highly reactive public apportionment of blame instead of rationale diagnosis of a societal crisis. Imbizos, men’s conferences, arrests and other current interventions are clearly ineffectual and therefore a serious paradigm shift is what the country needs regarding the correlation between substance abuse, violence and immorality in society,” he said.
