The man accused of the murder of Limpopo student Precious Ramabulana has a pending case for "a rape type of charge", President Cyril Ramaphosa revealed on Sunday.
The president visited Ramabulana's family and revealed the news of the pending case in a video posted to Twitter, but he did not provide more details.
READ: Ramaphosa to visit family of murdered student Precious Ramabulana
"What saddens me even more is that the perpetrator had had his brushes with the law on a rape type of charge. I don't have the full details and he was still out patrolling the streets of our country," Ramaphosa said.
"What this means is that we must have an active record of all those who are either found guilty, who have had a brush with the law [for] crimes against women and children. We need to keep a close eye on them."
The president added that there should be a zero tolerance.
#EnoughIsEnough #PreciousRamabulana https://t.co/tvxZbjuVLv
— Cyril Ramaphosa ???? (@CyrilRamaphosa) December 1, 2019
He said the criminal justice system would be improved so that once they are arrested and found guilty of serious crimes, perpetrators would spend the rest of their days in prison.
"They should be subjected to hard labour, the harshest of labour in prison because what they are doing to society is just beyond words and ... the hurt, the harm that they cause to the families of the victims, and society also has to bear the cost of having them in prison," Ramaphosa added.
Ramaphosa also expressed his condolences to the family, noting that South Africa had yet again, lost the life of a young woman because of a man.
"This is a national shame, that a young girl who had such a promising future, her life has been cut short by a man. A man who killed her so brutally, slaughtered her like an animal."
He said men seemed to have declared an outright war against the women of South Africa.
News24 previously reported that 21-year-old Ramabulana, a Capricorn TVET College student, was murdered at around 02:30 last Sunday.
It is understood that she was asleep in her rented room at ga-Joel Section in Mokomene when the suspect gained entry through the window and attacked her.
Her screams prompted neighbours to call the police but on arrival, authorities found her body in a pool of blood with several stab wounds, News24 reported.
Police arrested a man for the murder in the early hours of Thursday and he was reportedly found in possession of her SIM card, the object used to stab her and blood-stained clothes.
The motive for the attack is not yet known.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo could not comment on the pending case when News24 contacted him on Sunday, saying that the investigation was ongoing