Gender activists have called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to use his 2021 State of the Nation Address to announce concrete measures to tackle the nationwide scourge of gender-based-violence.

Two sentences of life imprisonment were imposed on Lungile Nxelelwa by the Palm Springs Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 10 February for the murder of his girlfriend, Keneilwe Pule of Sebokeng. Nxelelwa killed Pule in the most brutal manner, using an angle grinder to dismember her.

The brutality of the case added to calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to announce measures designed to end the scourge of GBV.

“It is important that the president addresses and makes a concrete commitment to ending GBV in [Thursday’s] Sona [State of the Nation Address] not only due to the loss of lives, but it is important to put women at the core of budgetary and any post-Covid-19 economic recovery measures,” GBV activist Nomahlubi Jakuja said.

Professor Amanda Gouws of Stellenbosch University said, “I think [Ramaphosa] is under great pressure and the women’s lobbies in this country will hold him to account. But I do not think [GBV] will be a number one or two priority.”

The Commission for Gender Equality welcomed Nxelelwa’s tough sentence and made…