Elizabeth Moselakgomo, 38, left her eight-year-old daughter at home to go for a run. She never came back. Her body was found on September 12, behind a hotel, police said.
She is one of at least eight women whose bodies have turned up east of Johannesburg in two months, the latest on Tuesday. Police said six were recovered in the Ekurhuleni municipality in a single week, and only two of the victims have been identified. The women were partially naked and battered, and the discoveries have raised fears that a serial killer, or a group of killers, is at work.
Police do not know. They said it remains unclear whether one person, several suspects or copycats are responsible.
A trail of earlier cases
Moselakgomo’s disappearance became public because fellow runners started a social media campaign to find her. That drew new attention to earlier cases and, later, led to more bodies being found.
The first victim, a 37-year-old woman, was found naked and bound with cable ties on July 15. A suspect was arrested two days later. A second woman, 32, was found partially clothed on August 24. A third was discovered on September 10, naked and badly decomposed.
Officials respond
“The challenge is ahead of us and the deaths of these young women must not be in vain,” acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia told reporters after a meeting on the killings. He called violence against women “a terrible scourge” and said he hopes for a day when women in South African society are safe.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that “no stone will be left unturned.” He acknowledged that “these incidents are causing fear and uncertainty in our communities, and especially among women.”
Amnesty International South Africa called the discoveries “just another horrific reminder that women in South Africa are not safe.” Civil society groups and sporting bodies have condemned the killings.
The fear lands in a country that already counts the cost of violence. According to the United Nations, one in three women in South Africa experiences physical or sexual violence in her lifetime. The government has declared gender-based violence a national emergency. At least 60 people are killed in South Africa every day, many of them linked to turf battles between gangs involved in drugs and illegal mining.
