CAPE TOWN, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Young women "are not safe in our society" as indicated by the latest gruesome killing of a female student, the Presidency lamented on Friday.
"We call on all student bodies to introduce awareness programs on gender violence," Minister in the Presidency Nkosazana Dlamini- Zuma said.
Dlamini-Zuma was the latest high-ranking government official who joined the chorus of condemnation against the murder of Zolile Khumalo, a 21-year-old student at the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) in Durban, allegedly by her boy friend.
Khumalo was shot dead on campus in full view of her roommate on Tuesday night following what police described as a domestic quarrel.
On Thursday, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe Sisulu condemned the killing, saying South Africans "are tired of such senseless killings and will not tolerate them."
The murder of Khumalo highlights the seriousness of gender-based violence in South Africa where a woman is killed by an intimate partner every eight hours in the country, according to the South African Medical Research Council.
"Although it is not our intention to pre-empt the motive behind Khumalo's killing, it is clear that young women are not safe in our society," Dlamini-Zuma stressed.
She urged universities and other institutions of higher learning to take precautionary measures to improve security to ensure the safety of students in their care.
"It is not acceptable that some one could easily breach security to commit such a heinous crime," said Dlamini-Zuma.
The law enforcement agencies must swiftly investigate the murder and bring the perpetrator to book, she said.
Khumalo's killing occurred less than two days before the South Gauteng High Court on Thursday sentenced convicted murderer Sandile Mantsoe to an effective 32 years in prison for murdering Karabo Mokoena, a 22-year-old girl last year.
In trying to destroy evidence, Montsoe dumped and burned Mokoena's body in a case that shocked the nation.
"We condemn in the strongest terms the killing of Khumalo and trust that our justice system will prevail the same way it did in the case of Mantsoe," Dlamini-Zuma said.
The sentencing of Mantsoe should send a stern warning to all other perpetrators of violence against women to desist from committing such deplorable acts, she said.
"We have full confidence in our law enforcement that those implicated in the murder of Khumalo will be brought to book," the minister said.
The accused killer of Khumalo, a 23-year-old man, who cannot yet be named, made his first appearance in the Durban Regional Court on Friday on charges of murder.
