By REGINALD KANYANE
1 May 2025- The police in North West said it is concerned about the high rate of domestic violence and Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) related crimes, which are unfortunately blamed and wrongly attributed to poor, inadequate or ineffective policing.
This comes after a gruesome discovery of lifeless bodies of a couple that was discovered by their neighbour at Moime Section, in Serutube village, outside Phokeng in Rustenburg on 28 April 2025.
The North West police spokesperson, Colonel Adele Myburgh said the female victim (42), allegedly suffered and succumbed to serious injuries, while her boyfriend, believed to be the perpetrator (65), was found hanging from the rafters.
“Following the tragic domestic violence and Gender Based Violence (GBV) associated murder of a woman in Mahikeng last week, yet another reprehensible and tragic murder and suicide incident has been reported to the police in Phokeng at midday on 28 April 2025,” she said.
Meanwhile, the acting North West Police Commissioner, Major General Patrick Asaneng said no amount of police stations, Victim Friendly Rooms, serving of protection orders or police visibility patrols are going to eradicate the societal ills of domestic violence and GBV, which are perpetrated inside homes, schools and in some instances, by fake traditional healers and in places of worship by pastors.
“What is disturbing and deeply concerning is that when these incidents occur and are reported, the communities, social commentators, civil rights activists, social and mainstream media immediately get into highly reactive public apportionment of blame, instead of rational diagnosis of a societal crisis.
“Imbizos, men’s conferences, arrests and other current interventions are clearly ineffectual and therefore a serious paradigm shift is what the country needs regarding the correlation between substance abuse, violence and immorality in society,” he said.
The Guardian 