In Ekurhuleni, South Africa, the killing of Dineo M. and a cluster of women's deaths over two months have sharpened a question that haunts the region: why do laws meant to protect women so often fail to reach them? South Africa declared gender-based violence a national disaster in 2025, yet the declaration has not closed the distance between policy and the lived reality of women in their homes and streets. Across Southern Africa — from Botswana to Zambia — researchers and activists are converging on the same hard truth: protection is not a law written down, but a system that must function at e
Southern Africa's GBV Crisis: Laws Alone Cannot Stop the Killing
Dineo M., a 38-year-old woman, was beaten and stabbed to death in Ekurhuleni; multiple women in their 20s and 30s have been killed in the area over two months, leaving families and young children without mothers.