OPINIONS & PERSPECTIVES: I Am A man. I Am A Father. I Am Scared.

Reports that a ninth woman’s body has been found in Dawn Park in the City of Ekurhuleni, following discoveries of other bodies, in KwaThema, Olifantsfontein and Kempton Park, should send shockwaves through every community in South Africa.

The South African Police Service has established a multidisciplinary task team to investigate these cases and determine whether they are connected. We must allow investigators to establish the facts and avoid speculation. But there is something we cannot wait for an investigation to tell us: Women are dying. Families are being destroyed. Women are living in fear.

Police have confirmed that several of the victims were sexually assaulted. These are not merely crime statistics. Behind every victim is a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend and a family now forced to live with unimaginable pain.

As a man, I am angry. As a father, I am scared. I have a daughter, who is just one year and nine months old. I look at her and ask myself a question that I believe every father in South Africa should be asking:

• What kind of country will my daughter inherit?
• Will she be able to run without fear?
• Will she be able to walk home without fear?
• Will she be able to travel without fear?
• Will she be able to trust the men around her?

I cannot accept a South Africa where these questions become normal. I think about Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo, who went out for a run and never came home. Her eight-year-old daughter was the one who raised the alarm. Think about that for a moment. An eight-year-old child waiting for her mother to come home. That is not a statistic. That is a childhood changed forever.

And now we are confronted with yet another woman whose life has been taken. Nine women. Nine lives. Nine families carrying unimaginable pain. This is why I am speaking directly to the men of South Africa. Men we have to stand up. Not only when a woman's death becomes a headline. Not only when social media is outraged. Not only when politicians make speeches.

We must confront gender-based violence where it begins. We must challenge the friend, who speaks about women with contempt. We must confront the man who believes violence makes him powerful. We must refuse to remain silent when we know that a woman is being abused.

We must stop protecting perpetrators simply because they are our friends, brothers, relatives or people we know. Silence is not brotherhood. Protecting perpetrators is not brotherhood. Looking the other way is not brotherhood.

There is nothing masculine about rape. There is nothing powerful about violence. There is nothing honourable about killing a woman. A real man does not destroy a woman to prove that he is a man. We also need a serious response from the state.

Our communities deserve effective policing, thorough investigations, accountability and visible action against those responsible for these crimes.

• Families deserve answers.
• Victims deserve justice.
• Women deserve to live.

And men have a responsibility to become part of the solution. This is bigger than Ekurhuleni. It is bigger than Kempton Park. It is bigger than KwaThema. This is a South African crisis. Today, I am not speaking as a politician. I am speaking as a man. I am speaking as a father. I want my daughter to grow up in a South Africa where she can walk, run, travel, dream and live without constantly calculating the dangers around her. I want to be able to look her in the eyes one day and tell her: “My generation saw what was happening to women, and we refused to remain silent.”

• Today, I am angry.
• Today, I am heartbroken.
• Today, I am scared.
• Because I am a man.
• I am a father.

And I am scared for my daughter. So to the men of South Africa, I ask you:

• Look at your daughters.
• Look at your mothers.
• Look at your sisters.
• Look at the women you love.

Then ask yourself one question: What are you doing to make South Africa safer for them? Our daughters are watching. We cannot fail them.