'Attacks on women getting more brutal'
August 11 2007 at 10:35AM
By Helen Bamford
A total of 119 women were murdered in Cape Town between this and last year's Women's Day.
Exactly half were killed by their partners and 25 percent were sexually assaulted before their deaths.
Even more disturbing, for forensic pathologists who examine the battered and broken bodies, is the increasing brutality of the attacks.
Professor Lorna Martin, head of the University of Cape Town's department of forensic medicine and toxicology, said South Africans were committing murders with such violence they shocked even hardened pathologists.
Martin, who is a chief specialist in the provincial department of health, said some days it was "like carnage".
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"One woman was stabbed 104 times; a 13-year-old was stabbed 23 times, then had her throat slit. We had a gunshot case last week where the victim had been shot 17 times."
Martin, who is an international rape homicide specialist, has worked on a number of high-profile cases including that of Marike de Klerk, ex-wife of former president FW de Klerk.
It was Martin who testified in court that the former first lady had been raped before being murdered at her luxury Dolphin Beach flat in 2001.
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"Even 20 years ago we were not this violent," she said. "People have no respect for humanity."
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Martin also expressed her dismay at Wednesday's axing of former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.
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"To fire one of the few people representing the national government who has made substantive contributions to the eradication of violence against women seems such a backward move. I am simply aghast," she said.
