Woman gets kick from self-defence

Langa murders have gone up by 50% in the past five years, with one in a thousand people killed. For sexual offences, the rate is also about one in a thousand, and carjackings have quadrupled in five years.

Against this backdrop of urban terror, one diminutive young woman has beaten the odds and drawn what she calls "a boundary around" herself through the discipline of karate.

Ncumisa Plum, 20, scooped a medal at an international competition in Canada, despite an injury which she kept to herself for fear of being told to withdraw.

"My dad forced me and my brothers to learn karate to protect ourselves and it became part of my nature," said Plum, who trains at the Gojukai Hombu dojo and is supported by a non-profit called African Warriors of Light.

When her dad died nine years ago, her brothers stopped karate. But for her, it was not only a way to honour his legacy but to protect herself.

"I feel safer because of karate," she said. "It's like I have put a boundary around me that warns others to think twice before they try to do something to me. Karate takes you off these streets where gangsters and peer pressure can make you lose focus."

She hopes to pass it forward. "I am now the only female senior at the Langa dojo and some of the little girls in my area want to follow in my footsteps."

International health NGO Livestrong said men and women often favour different karate tactics because of the "inherent physical differences between them" and students of karate are taught to use their strengths against their opponents' weaknesses.

"This allows a smaller and physically weaker woman to defeat a larger and stronger man through superior karate strategy."

Plum said other sports codes also change lives, but are "not as focused".

Her mother Alicia Blom, a domestic worker, wells up with tears when she speaks about her daughter. "I am so proud I can cry if I talk about it because I am coming from long struggles. So much happens around our country - people get raped, people are harsh every day - you can't even go to the shops. Karate is about self-defence and my daughter has that."