South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned criminals preying on the ‘weak and vulnerable’ as South Africa is currently locked down due the the Covid-19 pandemic. The President released a statement part of which read:
Since we declared the nation-wide lockdown, we have found that the majority of South Africans have responded with patience and understanding despite the considerable hardship.
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Unfortunately, criminals are also preying on the weak and vulnerable. Our hearts go out to the family of Mama Ngenzeni Zuma who was raped and killed in KwaZulu-Natal last month by men who allegedly pretended to be soldiers to gain entry into her home. We feel the pain of the family of 14-year-old Simphiwe Sibeko who went missing from her Soweto home, and whose body was found dumped in bushes last week. As a nation, we are saddened at the death of Constable Percy Ramalepe who was shot and killed while attending to a domestic violence call in Johannesburg last week. It is disturbing that during a time of such immense difficulty for our country, women and girls are being terrorised inside their own homes, forcing them to make desperate calls for help. The number of calls to the GBV National Command Centre has increased since the lockdown began on 27 March.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, violence against women has become a global problem.