In S v Engelbrecht 2005 2 SACR 89 the following shocking statistics came to light:

“[153] A community-based prevalence study conducted in three provinces found that 26,8% of women in the Eastern Cape, 28,4% in Mpumalanga and 19,1% of women in the Northern Province had been physically abused in their lifetimes by a current or ex-partner. The same study also investigated the prevalence of emotional and financial abuse experienced by women in the year prior to the study.

This was found to have affected 51,4% of women in the Eastern Cape, 50% in Mpumalanga and 39,6% in Northern Province. Thus, in some parts of South Africa, as many as one in two women have experienced some form of domestic violence. In a study of 1 394 men working in three Cape Town municipalities, approximately 44% admitted to abusing their female partners.

[154] At its most severe, domestic violence may result in death, with either the woman striking back and killing her abuser, or the abuser killing his partner. Research covering the period 1990–1999 identified at least 941 killings as having occurred in this period. This translates into at least one woman in Gauteng losing her life at the hands of her intimate male partner every four days.

Research finds that the risk of being killed by an intimate partner is far greater for women than it is for men. The same study, conducted in three Gauteng courts (Witwatersrand Local Division, Transvaal Regional, and Transvaal Provincial) over the years 1994–1998 found that for every one woman who killed her male partner, four men killed their female partners. This study also found that more than half of the women were killed under circumstances in which they were being abused.

The same was not true for male perpetrators. While not one male killed in response to violence from a female partner, at least a third had a history of abusing their female partner before finally killing her.”