Durban - Durbanites, angry and outraged by the gruesome murder of University of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana are planning to gather on the steps of Durban City Hall on Tuesday evening to "mourn and mobilise" the 19-year-old's death.
Under the banner of "She is my child. She is my sister. She is my mother" civil society activists, religious leaders and government officials are expected to gather on the steps of city hall at 6pm.
"Enough is enough", said Pamela Padayachee of the 1WomanPact, an organisation that empowers women in KwaZulu-Natal that is part organising Tuesday evening's event.
She said the recent incidents of young women in South Africa being murdered was a travesty.
"How long should we have a conversation about this? The fact that it is still going on and live in a society where men feel they have the right over a woman where they can dictate whether she lives or dies, based on their sexual cravings means we live in sick society. It is beyond talking now. We need action. We need to develop a clear way to deal with this and say it is out of hand. The stats speak for themselves," she said.
Padayachee said that despite the efforts of the government and policies that are geared towards women, crimes against women continue unabated and had now become a "national crisis".
She said much more needed to be done to end femicide in South Africa.
"We need to have stricter law. We need to have an example made. We not calling for the death penalty as we are against it but we need harsher laws and some solid consequences for their actions. It is repetitive because people who into Correctional Services system are not dealt with in an effective way are six months down the line released and part of society. We need to have consequences. There needs to be a system that says, 'if you do this is what you are going to face'".
Another organiser of Tuesday's Durban City Hall vigil, Kiru Naidoo said: "It is not enough to mourn, we must mobilise to make our society safer for everyone. Too few men speak up and too many men resort to violence against women and children"
A Cape-Town court was told on Monday that Mrwetyana had been raped and murdered, allegedly by a 42-year-old post office worker.
The accused whom the court ordered should not be named yet d led investigators to where he had dumped her body in Lingelethu West.
The 19-year-old student went missing last Saturday, August 24.
Late on Monday #AmINext started trending on Twitter with SA women expressing their fear at the high rate of femicide in the country.