Abused women filling up jails

SOUTH African prisons are filling up with mothers and daughters who have killed male abusers in their families, the Minister of Correctional Services said yesterday.

"We have witnessed an increase in the number of women serving life sentences as a result of killing their partners," Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said in a statement issued after the department's excellence awards at the weekend.

"What is even more disturbing is that some of these women are serving time together with their daughters, who assisted them in committing these murders after they themselves were direct, or indirect, victims of abuse by their fathers."

Ndebele said these women needed help dealing with the trauma of having experienced often long-term physical and emotion abuse.

He said another growing number of female prisoners were those who had violently acted against other women "due to competition for affection from their male partners".

He said the number of women prisoners who were pregnant or had babies under two years at the time of entering jail was of great concern.