JOHANNESBURG-(MaraviPost)-South African police have discovered the body of another woman in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, bringing to 10 the number of women found dead in the area in recent months as investigators examine possible links between the killings.
The BBC reports that the latest body was discovered on Saturday morning at a cemetery in Tembisa, north-east of central Johannesburg, with crime-scene investigators deployed to collect evidence.
The victim had reportedly been at a bar with a friend the previous evening, and the friend told South African broadcaster SABC that she recognised the woman’s clothing when shown a photograph of the body.
“I don’t know what I’m going to say to her children,” the woman said, describing the discovery as painful.
Gauteng Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Tommy Mthombeni said investigators could not yet establish whether the latest death was connected to the other killings.
He said, however, that similarities among the previous cases had raised concerns about a possible common modus operandi.
“For now, it’s not something which we can overrule to say there’s a serial killer, but we cannot conclusively indicate as such,” Mthombeni said.
Police have found the 10 bodies in circumstances that investigators are examining for similarities, with most of the victims discovered in and around Kempton Park and Tembisa.
The deaths have intensified concerns about violence against women in South Africa, a country that continues to record high levels of homicide and gender-based violence.
According to figures cited by the BBC, 5,427 people were murdered in South Africa between April and June this year.
The South African Human Rights Commission said last week that 569 women were killed and another 1,052 survived attempted murder during the same three-month period.
The national police statistics do not separately identify homicide victims by gender, making independent monitoring important in assessing the scale of violence against women.
The latest deaths have also increased pressure on the South African government, less than a year after authorities declared gender-based violence a national disaster.
Three men appeared in court earlier this week in connection with one of the nine previous murders, while police continue efforts to identify and arrest other people who may have been involved.
Investigators have not publicly confirmed that the cases form part of a single series of killings.
The discovery of the 10th body is therefore expected to intensify the investigation as police work to establish the circumstances surrounding each death and determine whether there are links between the cases.
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