Opinion - It's indeed a sad irony that in the very week the country marks 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children, two high-profile cases of intimate femicide dominated our headlines over the past week.
In both cases, the victims were young women who were murdered by men with whom they shared an intimate relationship.
In the first, Paralympian Oscar Pistorius saw his six-year jail sentence for murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeal, which ruled the penalty was shockingly lenient.
In the second, businessman Christopher Panayiotou faces life imprisonment for his role in the planned kidnapping and murder of his wife, Jayde.
Readers who have been engrossed in the details of these two sensational dramas should remember such high-profile cases represent only the tip of the iceberg in the broader problem of gender-based violence.
As much as we mourn the tragic deaths of Reeva Steenkamp and Jayde Panayiotou, we must not lose sight of an even more gruesome reality - that one woman is slain at the hands of her boyfriend, partner or husband every eight hours in South Africa.
This newspaper has been reporting widely on this sickening phenomenon over many years and has observed how such acts of brutality and violence have aroused societal outrage, protests and collective introspection.
People are angered and reviled by such criminal behaviour, and many volunteer to join placard demonstrations outside court when the accused men make an appearance.
But with the passage of time, people move on to other interests and challenges in their daily lives, hoping that attitudes will change and that violence against women will soon abate.
But it doesn’t. In fact, the levels of violence, rape and femicide just get worse by the day.
At the heart of the problem is the status of women and the respect accorded to them in society.
In some cultures, they are marginalised and have little or no power to make important decisions about their lives.
The violence is also often based on the roles that are given to women in society and the need to focus on the balance of power between men and women.
Leaders, community and religious organisations and NGOs need to be involved in earnest discussions about the role of women in society and how some deep-rooted social, cultural, religious and historical norms and attitudes need to change.
Much of this can be achieved within the walls of our own homes.