Johannesburg - As we reach the end of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign, we look at a series of high-profile criminal cases in which women were murdered by their intimate partners – a stark reminder that the scourge of intimate femicide affects every South African woman, irrespective of race, religion or social standing.
A case that received both local and international coverage is that of Paralympian and double-amputee Oscar Pistorius, who was convicted last week of the murder of his young model and actress girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius shot and killed her in his bathroom, on the eve of Valentine’s Day 2013, at his Pretoria home, where she was visiting.
Pistorius is awaiting sentencing for the murder charge, which could see him jailed for 15 years.
In March 2014, at the same time as Pistorius was in court for Steenkamp’s murder and right in the next courtroom, Thato Kutumela was jailed for 10 years for rape and 20 years for the murder of his 18-year-old model girlfriend, Zanele Khumalo.
At the time she was killed, Khumalo was pregnant with Kutumela’s child. He killed her shortly after she ended their relationship.
Then a Port Elizabeth teacher, Jayde Panayiotou, was kidnapped from outside her townhouse and later found shot and killed. Police evidence showed she was shot at close range‚ twice in the back and once in the head.
Jayde’s businessman husband Christopher, who is alleged to have had an extra-marital relationship, is facing charges of orchestrating her murder with two other men. He has pleaded not guilty. His trial, along with the alleged “fixer” and gunman‚ resumes next year.
Then a popular Soweto Radio DJ, Donald “Donald Duck” Sebolai, stunned his fans when he was arrested and charged for the murder of his girlfriend, Rachel Dolly Tshabalala, in her Soweto apartment on June 29 this year. He pleaded self-defence, saying they had an argument and she wanted to stab him. He attempted to disarm her and in the process she was stabbed. His sentencing was postponed to next year.
In Polokwane, businessman Rameez Patel was arrested after his wife, Fatima Choonara, was found dead in the couple’s rented apartment on April 10 this year. Her skull and cheekbones had been shattered and her jaw dislocated. Patel told police she had been shot during a house robbery.
However, he was arrested after police found inconsistencies in his story, including that there was no evidence of forced entry.
Patel is out on a R250 000 bail and his trial will resume on February 15.
In November 2011, two years before Pistorius shot and killed Steenkamp in Pretoria, another beautiful young mother, Chanelle Henning, was also killed in a drive-by shooting near her son’s crèche in Faerie Glen, Pretoria.
At the time of the killing, she was estranged from her businessman-husband, Nico Henning, and the couple were in the process of an acrimonious custody battle over their son, the court heard.
Initially, two hitmen – Gerhardus du Plessis and Willem Pieterse – were arrested, convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison for the crime. Then it was the turn of the middlemen, André Gouws and Nigerian national Ambrose Monye, who were both sentenced to life imprisonment for their roles in the killing.
Henning was the last to be brought to book as the mastermind of the murder.
The State alleged that Henning had provided intimate details about his wife’s movements and also discussed with Gouws places where she could be “executed”.
After appearing in court this year, his trial was postponed to June next year.
Lisa Vetten, a senior researcher and political analyst for the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre to end violence against women, said intimate femicide is a global phenomenon and not unique to these South African men.
However, she did contend that our figures for male-on-male homicide are among the highest in the world, so it’s not surprising that our male-on-female figures are also high.
“Both point to how central and normative violence has been made to certain forms of masculinity in South Africa.”
Vetten said one reason why women are killed by their partners is that they try to leave.
The abusive partner’s thinking is “how dare you leave me, adding to my sense of humiliation?”
What these men see in a woman is a possession, something they own, and they think: “My things don’t leave me. How dare you leave?”
Sunday Independent
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