Men kill, not love women
So many women, so many bodies; it's easy to get confused.
A disturbing pattern of violence has emerged in the East Rand, where at least 11 women have been brutally killed. This grim reality hits close to home, as the reporter writing this account once called the East Rand their stomping ground. They recall a notorious case from the 1990s involving Christiaan de Wet, a pedophile murderer who was apprehended before he could claim more victims.
The reporter also had encounters with Moses Sithole, South Africa’s most prolific serial killer, who was responsible for 38 confirmed deaths before he was caught. Despite their past brushes with these killers, the reporter now finds themselves grappling with a new and unsettling question: are these recent killings the work of a copycat or a completely new serial killer?
The gravity of the situation is further compounded by the broader context of gender-based violence in South Africa. In the past year alone, over 50,000 cases of gender-based violence and femicide were reported to police, representing only a fraction of the actual incidents. The femicide rate in South Africa stands at a staggering 12.2 intentional homicides per 100,000 women, placing the country among the world's highest.
The report emphasizes that the majority of these cases involve men who are known to their victims, with women facing the most significant risk when they are in the company of the very men they trust and rely on.
Written by urgent.news from The Citizen's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
