South African post office worker Luyanda Botha has been handed three life sentences after admitting to the rape and murder of 19-year-old student Uyinene Mrwetyana.<\/p>\n
Her killing in August sparked large protests over the high levels of violence against women in the country.<\/p>\n
The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, tied a ribbon at a memorial on her visit to Cape Town in September.<\/p>\n
In South Africa some 2,700 women were murdered by men last year.<\/p>\n
In addition, at least 100 rapes were reported daily.<\/p>\n
In September, at an emergency sitting of parliament on this issue, President Cyril Ramaphosa said urgent action was needed and likened the figures for violence against women and children to those of a country at war.<\/p>\n
Shortly after her murder, reports emerged that Ms Mrwetyana had been lured into the mail room of a post office in Cape Town.<\/p>\n
She was then raped twice and bludgeoned to death, South African news site News24 reports.<\/p>\n
Botha hid her body in the post office’s safe before taking it to another place and setting fire to it, News24 adds quoting the prosecution’s summary.<\/p>\n
The first-year film and media studies student had been missing for a week before her body was found dumped in Khayelitsha township.<\/p>\n
The killing led to large protests,\u00a0including an attempt to storm a conference centre in Cape Town<\/a>\u00a0where a meeting of the World Economic Forum was taking place.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Duchess of Sussex personally passed on her condolences to the victim’s mother<\/a>. Meghan made the visit to “show solidarity” with protesters against gender-based violence, a post on her official Instagram account said.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"