Women in South Africa are six times more likely to be killed by their "male partners" than elsewhere in the world, says the senior researcher at the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre, Lisa Vetton.
She said the rate of such killings by intimate partners in South Africa was six times higher than the global average.
"It translates into four women killed every day by their intimate partners."
This was one of the chilling statistics given by Vetton when she took part in SAfm Radio's discussion programme, the After Eight Debate, on violence against women and children.
The debate marked the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign.
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Vetton said last year's statistics showed 52 000 rapes had been reported in South Africa. "But research from 1997 found that only one in nine women in the study was reporting. This suggests we are looking at closer to 450 000 rapes a year. If you compare our reported rapes with those in the United States, it is three times higher."
She said the rate of SA domestic violence was also extremely high.
"If you look at just physical abuse, then probably one in four women has experienced physical abuse in at least one relationship in her lifetime.
"Once you start adding emotional and economic abuse, that number can go up to as high as one in two women."
Her concern was shared by a second panelist, Mbuyiselo Botha of the Sonke Gender Justice Network.
He said attention often focused largely on physical abuse. But there were many other forms: emotional, economic and psychological, and more attention should be paid to them.
He said men were often subjected to psychological abuse.
"You would always be told how unsuccessful you are, how useless you are, when you are compared with those who have achieved."
Women were forever told they were fat.
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