The recent murder on three lesbians and the sacking of a deputy health minister overshadowed the celebration of National Women’s Day, a public holiday in South Africa.

The day commemorates the national march of women on August 9, 1956 to petition against legislation that curtailed an African's freedom of movement during the apartheid era. The women sang a protest song of which the phrase: "you strike a woman, you strike a rock" has come to represent women's courage and strength in South Africa

South Africa's 1996 constitution, one of the world's most progressive, was the first in the world to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. However, these murders showed the country is failing to live up to its constitutional promise to protect all its citizens, the international rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.