President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on South African men to take a more active role in confronting gender-based violence, as the country grapples with a spate of killings, with 12 women slain in just two months.

"We have placed the burden of male violence on women. That must change," Ramaphosa said in a televised address."

He said that the solution to ending the violence against women could not be by placing restrictions on women.

"The solution to violence against women cannot be to make women less free. We cannot build a safer country by turning women into prisoners of precaution. Women should not have to reorganise their lives around the threat of male violence. The freedom promised by our constitution cannot be a freedom enjoyed fully by men and cautiously enjoyed by women."

He urged men not to remain silent and to challenge abusive behaviour by friends, colleagues and relatives.

Ramaphosa also rejected victim-blaming, emphasising that the responsibility for violence always lies with the person who commits it, 'not the victim'.

The address follows alarm over the deaths of 12 women in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, in less than two months. Police say they have not established whether the cases are linked.

A specialised police team has been deployed to investigate the killings, which have intensified concern over violence against women.

South African police figures show 569 women were murdered nationwide between April and June this year, an average of more than six a day.