"Our country is under attack. Our sisters and girl children are under attack," said EFF MP Mmabatho Olive Mokause in her speech to parliament on gender-based violence. 

On Tuesday, MPs debated gender-based violence in the country to mark the end of Women's Month.

This after President Cyril Ramaphosa called the news of the rape and murder of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana and many others this week a "dark period".

Here is Mokause's speech in six powerful quotes:

Killing of women and children

"This can never be business as usual as some of our benches are portraying it to be. Our country is under attack.

"Our girl child, our sisters, are under attack, but this remains business as usual for the ruling party."

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Another statistics 

"These young women join a list of thousands of other women who are raped, maimed, beaten, enslaved, emotionally molested, and brutally killed by men in this country.

"The perpetrators of these vile acts are likely never to pay for their sins because our criminal justice system is fraught with inefficiencies."

Mokause was referring to the recent deaths of Uyinene Mrwetyana, Leighandre ‘Baby Lee’ Jegels, and Janika Mallo, who were all killed by men in the past week.

Nowhere to hide for women

"For many women in this country, a simple journey to the post office, a short drive to the gym, a visit to a beloved uncle, may very well lead to a bloody termination of life.

"There is nowhere to hide for women, regardless of the socio-economic position one may be in; all women are targeted as prey for the deeply violent men who feel entitled to women’s bodies."

Enough is enough

"We can no longer continue as business as usual, we can no longer fold our arms as lawmakers in this country. 

"We need to enforce education against patriarchy and sexism, complemented by legislation to protect and promote women’s liberation and the close monitoring of the implementation thereof in order to realise real women empowerment."

Past 25 years 

"Women have suffered most from the neoliberal reality of the past 25 years. The vicious circle of triple oppression, based on race, class and gender, has not been broken for black women in particular.  The EFF recognises that while patriarchy and sexism are pervasive in our society, it is black women who suffer the most from gender-based violence."

Half-hearted interventions

"Up to now, interventions for dealing with violence against women have been superficial, half-hearted and based on the wrong understanding of the root causes of the vulnerability of women.

"Across all party lines, it's time women stood up and said this has gone too far, and it cannot go on any longer."