Janine Williams (40) had divorced her husband in November 2022 but the magistrate had agreed to her ex-husband’s request to stay in the family home until January 2023, even though Janine had divorced him due to his continuous abuse.

On Christmas morning, he stabbed her 24 times, in front of the couple’s daughters. He then fled the scene but was arrested at a JMPD roadblock.

He is still in prison awaiting the conclusion of his trial, having been denied bail.

This year, another family will be celebrating Christmas without a mother, sister and daughter, with the memory of the brutality that engulfed them a year ago.

Sonée Witbooi (28) had recently married her sweetheart, and the couple had set up home in Loerie Park, George.

On 21 December police were alerted to an altercation at the home and on arrival, found Sonée dead due to having been attacked with a panga. A second person, present on the scene, had tried to intervene and also sustained injuries.

Sonée’s husband was arrested on the scene. It later transpired that he had also been arrested for attempted rape, committed when he was on parole while serving an 18-year sentence. Due to an administrative mix-up, the two cases were initially not linked, and he might have been set free with a warning for the attempted rape, had the state not detected the discrepancy in time.

In addition to the charge of murder, he was also charged with three counts of attempted murder, housebreaking and being in possession of drugs, as well as charges of assault.

At this stage he is next due in court in late January 2024.

Nokuphila Dladla (22) was heavily pregnant and excitedly awaiting the birth of her child in early January, in Vanderbijlpark. She called her partner, Giving Makhangeni Moekoena (Kiwiet) and asked him to bring her some food. When he did not turn up for his shift the next day, a concerned colleague went to look for him, but neither he nor Nokuphila were at their home, and bloodstains were found in the house.

Various police units were mobilised to search for them, and their bodies were found some days later, in a piece of open veld near Heidelberg. Police found Kiwiet’s car, which had been sold to a man in Heidelberg, which then led to the arrest of two foreign nationals. They in turn pointed to Kiwiet’s ex-girlfriend as the person who had orchestrated the kidnapping and murders, and had actually shot the couple, in revenge for Kiwiet having left her.

Nokuphila’s unborn baby did not survive her death.

Keitumetse Banda (nicknamed Itu by her family) was playful and talkative, and loved helping with family chores such as washing dishes. She had just completed Grade 6 and was looking forward to being in ths school play the next week, although she wanted to be a pilot when she grew up. Keitumetse (12) was playing with her friends in New Eesterust near Hammanskraal, when a man known to the family approached her and asked her to go with him to a nearby village.

When she did not return home, her family instituted a search, only to find her naked body the next day, at a nearby dam. Her throat and body had been cut open, and she had been raped.

The man was arrested on suspicion of murder and rape. The community was calling for the death sentence and was about to torch his home when police intervened.

Two days before she died, Sherne Pillay (27) told her mother that she was planning to break up with her boyfriend as she was no longer happy and no longer loved him. They had been dating for roughly a year, but the relationship was stormy and although she had left him a few times, he would cry and threaten suicide if she did not go back to him.

That Saturday, her boyfriend left the flat that they shared, in Berea, Durban and when he returned he found the flat locked. He called his father to help him open the door, when they found her in the bathroom with bruises on her hands and body and a cable tie around her neck. Paramedics who were called three hours after the group entered the flat, determined her to have died at the scene.

Her boyfriend was arrested for her murder a few days later, but was released in September 2021 as the National Prosecuting Authority determined there was insufficient evidence to successfully gain a conviction. To date no-one else has been arrested in this case.

Sherne is surviced by her son who was six years old at the time of her death.

Lauren Dryden (31) had just finished her night shift and was waiting for an Uber to take her and a co-worker home to Elsies River. She was approached by a 36-year-old man who demanded her cellphone. She ran back towards her work, screaming for help and was shot in the back. She had recently become engaged to her high school sweetheart.

With assistance from the community, a 36-year-old man was arrested for her murder, but was released in March 2021 due to a lack of evidence.

She is survived by her fiancé and two young children.

Anneline Titus and her younger sister were walking across a field in Macassar, to take bus fare to their brother, when a young man, 16 at the time, attempted to rape her sister in an attempt to prove himself to his gang. When Anneline intervened, he stabbed her in the face and neck, and then dragged her sister into some nearby bushes. Even though she was dying, she ran for help, and community members managed to rescue her sister. Anneline had been the breadwinner in the family, working as a cashier at the local Shoprite supermarket. During the trial, the attacker admitted that Anneline had done nothing to warrant the attack, and that he just wanted to be a skollie. He was sentenced to 10 years for her murder and an additional 5 years for attempted rape.

Angela was 15 and in Grade 9 at school in Galeshewe, Kimberley. On Friday 6th November she intervened in a fight between four other girls and a boy, to try to stop it. During the scuffle she was pushed to the ground, and the boy, who was much larger than her, sat on top of her and punched her in the stomach.

It is alleged that the boy’s father (43) also became involved and choked her.

After the incident she went home but started complaining of stomach pains the next day, and was admitted to hospital. She passed away on Monday 9 November.

The inquest revealed that she had ingested an unknown substance, which was the cause ofher death.

Jessica Weyers (23) was last seen when she left the home she shared with her boyfriend on Durban’s beachfront, to visit a client. She never returned and her body was found dumped at a sportsfield in Inanda, 2 days later. Her throat had been slit and both her hands cut off, and she had been raped. However it is likely that the murder took place somewhere else and her body was left on the field later.

It later transpired that she had been friends with another sex worker who had also been abducted and murdered, and Jessica had been assisting investigators with that case. One investigator noted that Jessica was not ashamed of being a sex worker and tried to stop other young girls from getting into the business, as she was aware of the risk she was constantly facing.

Her daughter was two months old at the time of her death.

No arrests have been made in connection with her murder.

Inathi Mahlahlo wanted to be a model or a doctor when she grew up. She was 6 years old when she left home in Mdantsane to buy sweets and a packet of crisps at the nearby shops. She had done this many times before, but this time she never returned. The frantic family initiated a search after the shop owner said he had not seen her.

Five hours later she was found in bushes alongside the road in NU8, stripped of underwear and with a stab wound to her neck. She was rushed to hospital but succumbed to her wounds before she got there. It was later determined that she had also been raped.

No arrests were made in her murder.

Mbali Hlongwane (21) was studying IT at Ekurhuleni West TVET College, and was stabbed multiple times outside its gates, in full daylight. It was alleged that she had had an argument with a fellow student about qualifying for an exam – she had qualified to write the exam but the perpetrator had not. An ambulance which called to assist did not have the right equipment and another ambulance had to be called. She died of her wounds in hospital.

The man who stabbed her was seen waiting for her at the college gates, with a knife, and had said that he ‘wanted to take her soul’.

In spite of people having spoken to the perpetrator, and witnessed the murder, he was not arrested until 4 November 2022 – more than a year later. In that time, he had been active on Whatsapp and Facebook, including threatening witnesses to the crime. He was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment.

Njabulo Enhle Majozi (18) had recently matriculated from Wyebank Secondary School and was planning to study further. She was excited about a job she would be starting in Kloof, KZN.

Sithembile Ngobese was 24 and studying law.

Both women were apparently dating the same man, a constable in the South African Police Service (SAPS). They were murdered at his home in Hillcrest, and investigators found 11 empty cartridges at the scene. He had staged the situation to make it look like a home invasion.

The man was arrested and was found hanging in his cell two months later, allegedly having
committed suicide.

Businesswoman Nokwanda Maguga-Patocka (44) died of head injuries after she was reportedly strangled, punched and bludgeoned, and her body left in bushes near her home.

She ran a business based in Ginsberg, in the Eastern Cape, providing catering and events management services, and her clients included the Eastern Cape government.

Earlier, she was apparently involved in an argument in her home, with a man she was dating. A nine-year-old child witnessed the man assaulting her and raised the alarm, and Ms Maguga-Patocka managed to escape from the home. Witnesses saw a man chasing her down the road and dragging her into his car, but she was dead by the time people came to her aid.

The man was arrested and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.

Three friends, Nolusindiso (17), Siyasanga (20) and Zintle (21) from three different high schools, went out to celebrate writing their final exam paper, but never returned home. Residents of Site B in Khayelitsha heard shots at about 8 pm in an alleyway, and found the three bodies shortly thereafter. They had all been shot execution-style.

No motive was established for the killing, however a member of the local Community Policing Forum alleged that the women were murdered by a man who had bought them drinks at a local shebeen that evening. The ‘blesser’ apparently followed them when they left the shebeen because he was looking for sex. It is claimed that he insulted them and shot them when they screamed for help. 

No arrests have yet been made in this case, but the future of three bright young women has been extinguished.

Zenizole (15) left her home in Motherwell, Eastern Cape on 17 September and told her family she was going to a school event in Malabar. She never returned home, but was not reported missing. She was held hostage for 4 days and was repeatedly raped, apparently by 2 men known to her. On 21 September she managed to escape, and a woman found her on the street, appearing sick and crying. Together they went to the local clinic. However the clinic told her that they do not deal with rape cases and advised them to go to the police station to report the incident. 

The police station is reportedly 10 km from the clinic, and with no finances, they walked this distance together until a taxi transported them for free the last few kilometers. By this time she was visibly unwell.  At the police station, the police advised them to go to the clinic as she was seriously ill and unable to talk any more. 

At the police station she seemed to have an epileptic fit and died before she could get help. She still lay on the floor of the police station for some hours, covered in a blanket donated by a passerby when she collapsed, until the police called her family to come and identify her.

The Eastern Cape Department of Heath have agreed that ‘there is room for improvement’ in the way her case was handled, and for those of other victims.

Sinathi (24), who lived in Zwelihle near Hermanus, was one of four women who were murdered in the Western Cape in the space of three weeks, leading SANCO National Spokesperson Simon Skhozana to appeal for special courts to be set up to deal speedily with atrocious GBV and femicide crimes.

It was reported that Sinathi’s neighbour had urged to her to lay a charge of assault against her boyfriend, due to the constant beatings he perpetrated against her. She was however unwilling to do so as she was afraid of him. 

According to her friends, the previous night he had found her with her friends and demanded she accompany him to his house. Sometime on 11^th September, he allegedly hit her on the head with a hammer until she died. He then tried to stuff her body into a black bin bag before leaving the house with the bag, but he was unable to carry her and her family members found her at the door of his house. He later handed himself in to the police.

At a later date he was charged with rape and malicious damage to property, as well as the murder charge.

Sinathi is survived by her son, who was 3 years old at the time. 

Nelisa Cele was found at Oribi Gorge in KZN on 7 September. She was found by a birdwatcher as her body had been thrown off a cliff, but had landed in the branches of a tree.

She was a registered nurse at Gamalakhe Community Healthcare centre, and had left home the previous Wednesday to buy a new car, for which she had saved for many months. Her family initiated a search for her, but she was not seen again until the birdwatcher spied her body 2 days later.

The forensic report found that she had suffered blunt trauma to her head and suffered extensive internal bleeding. She was survived by her 13-year old son. 

She was 6 months pregnant at the time of her death and her unborn baby did not survive.

No-one has been arrested for her murder.
 

Leighandre Jegels was a world karate champion, and a continental and South African female boxing champion. She had trained as a teacher and had a BSc degree, but was working full-time as a boxer, and it was widely recognised that she had an amazing talent in this field. She was a product of Boxing SA's Women in Boxing flagship project and was seen as a role model for many girls who aspired to excel in martial arts.

She was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend, a member of the SAPS Tactical Response Team, while driving with her mother to a gym session at in Mdantsane’s NU1. Her ex- boyfriend waited for her on the side of the road and according to witnesses ‘shot her calmly three times in the face, shot her mother, then climbed back into his car and drove off’. Her mother was also shot in the attack and was rushed to hospital, but ultimately survived.

Shortly after he shot Baby-Lee, he was involved in an accident which ended up killing two people, a nurse and a librarian. Her killer later died of injuries sustained during the car crash and never appeared in court to face charges.

"She died [at] the hands of someone who she once loved. We are told that we need to get out of abusive relationships, Leighandre did. We are told that you need to apply for a protection order, Leighandre did, but even still that guy took her life” – Fezeka Nkomonye- Bayeni, EC MEC for Arts, Culture and Sports in 2019.

A 19-year old first year student at UCT, Uyinene Mrwetyana was raped and murdered when she went to collect a parcel at the local post office. She had purchased clothes online and had previously gone to the post office to collect, however the accused told her it had not yet arrived and he would contact her when it did arrive. She went back on 24 August at 4:30 pm. The post office was already closed but the accused let her in, and this was unfortunately the last time she was seen alive by anybody else.

For two days, people searched for her until the accused made a statement to police and led them to where her body was. She had been raped twice, and when she tried to fight back, he bludgeoned her to death with a post office scale. He then hid her body inside the safe of the post office, and then later doused it with an accelerant before being set alight. He later buried her body in a shallow grave. Six days after her disappearance, police investigations led them to the killer who made a statement to police and pointed out where he had buried her.

It turned out that Post Office officials had known that the accused had been convicted on armed robbery and sexual assault charges, but had not acted on this information.

He was given three life sentences for the rape and murder, and five years for defeating the ends of justice.

At her memorial service, Uyinene’s mother Nomagwane described her daughter as a fierce activist who detested any form of social injustice. She also mentioned her daughter's fighter spirit. She then read out a letter to her daughter:

"I will miss you. I will miss your outspokenness. You were the one that always pushed me to speak, you would say 'Thetha mama, vula umlomo (Speak mom, open your mouth)'. My Uyiuyi, an extremely independent and organised lady from very early on in life. You were an explorer, very different from me and you would call me boring.

"I'm sorry that I warned you about all other places but not the post office. I'm sorry I was not there to fight for you, my girl... I love you, my girl," the letter read.

The Uyinene Mrwetyana Foundation was established after Uyinene’s death, with its primary aim being to empower young people to stand against violence.

The SPAR Group Ltd is proud to be associated with the Uyinene Mrwteyana Foundation and its work.

Kwasa was a first-year Biochemistry student at Wits University, and was spending time at home with her family in Dutywa in the Eastern Cape during lockdown.

According to information provided by the police, the young woman was seen being pursued by a male attacker but she made it home, only to be followed and stabbed by the perpetrator. Family members, including her 10-year-old sibling, witnessed the attack and tried to help her, but the stab wounds were too deep and she died shortly thereafter.

The suspect was apprehended after he tried to overdose by taking sedatives. He was apparently angered by her refusal to go out with him after she had broken up with him. This was also apparently not the first time he had tried to kill her; however this time he was successful.

In June 2021 he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

Statement by Wits University on 18 August 2020: Kwasa Zozo Lugalo, a determined & driven young women, was murdered by a man she chose not to have a relationship with. Women are being murdered in shocking numbers by men in SA. We are tired of mourning the loss of the lives of women. Rest in peace. #JusticeForKwasa

Aviwe lived in Gugulethu, Western Cape, and had been raped on New Years' Day 2022. In dealing with the pain, she became a drug addict. She was 15 at the time. Her mother recounted that she had been 'difficult to deal with' after the rape incident, and since the incident she had never been herself. She was apparently doing drugs as a way to heal the pain of what had been done to her, but on the 1st August her body was found stuffed into a wheelie bin. She had been raped before she was murdered. Her suspected killer was arrested on 10 August 2022.

Shenice Johnathan was last seen when she went out to visit a nearby friend, on the night of 6 August 2020. After she did not return home, a search was instituted and her body was found lying in an open field, the next day. She had been stabbed 47 times and was nearly decapitated from the attack.

Her family said that three people had apparently been looking for her “to hurt her”. A 20-year-old man was arrested for her murder while appearing in court on an unrelated matter. He was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Shenice was survived by her family and her daughter who was 19 months old at the time of the attack.

On 25 July 2018, Kelly Bain was at home on maternity leave with her one-month-old daughter, when she confronted an intruder in her home.

He stabbed her multiple times and then took the engagement ring from her finger. He was surprised by her fiancé who had returned home from lunch, who grappled with him, but the killer managed to escape. Kelly died at the scene.

By the time of his sentencing, the killer had already been imprisoned for another femicide of elderly women, and multiple burglaries and was awaiting his trial on the charge of another femicide of an elderly woman.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

On 21 July 2020, Akhona was beaten so badly by her 29-year-old boyfriend, that she succumbed to her injuries the next day. He had accused her of seeing someone else. Her family had previously warned him not to beat her, yet he persisted in doing so.

On that day, Akhina had gone to buy nappies for her daughter and her boyfriend kept calling her to find out where she was. When she returned her boyfriend came and took her to his house, where he beat her. The next day he called her sister to come to her aid, but she was unresponsive and died soon after.

She is survived by her three-year-old daughter and her family.

On 12 July 2021, Charlene’s son Ethan arrived at his mother’s house to collect his daughter, whom she had been babysitting. Ethan found his mother dead in what initially appeared to be a suicide. She had been a policewoman for 20 years and had dedicated her life to fighting for victims of crime. Charlene had been through a bitter divorce from her ex-husband but had allowed him to run a tuckshop from her garage.

The tuckshop had been looted and Charlene’s devices had also been taken, so that when it was determined that her death was not a suicide, suspicion would fall on a possible burglary.

However after investigation, it was found that Charlene’s ex-husband had paid a drug addict to stage the robbery while he strangled her with his own hands, before putting a rope around her neck to make it look like a suicide.

His accomplice was sentenced to 15 years in prison while Ashley October was given a life sentence for the murder.

In court it emerged that Charlene had earlier laid a complaint of domestic violence against her husband to the police, who had never followed up on it.

Charlene is survived by her twin daughters and her son, and a granddaughter.

Angie and her friend had gone out on 3 July 2022 in their home town of Tarlton, Gauteng, and were last seen walking home that night. Both girls were 17 years old at the time of the attacks, and they were later found on the side of the road, left for dead. Angie was dead and her friend was critically ill but later recovered in hospital. They had both been stabbed and Angie was allegedly raped.

Apart from Angie, another woman celebrating her birthday was also raped and murdered that night in Tarlton. Residents were so angry that they blockaded the R24 and attacked a man they believed was guilty of the crimes, burning him to death. Police arrested 2 suspects later that week who have been charged with both murders.

Please note that SPAR does not espouse vigilantism in any form.

25-year-old Zintle Ngxokwana was murdered by her 26-year-old boyfriend in Delft, who used a ceramic toilet seat and a broom stick to attack her. She died of her injuries the same day.

The police officer investigating the case, Detective Warrant Officer Thobela Nzimani, worked tirelessly and was able to arrest the suspect within 24 hours of the crime being committed. Zintle’s boyfriend was subsequently sentenced to 15 years direct imprisonment.

Mihle and her cousin were alone in a house in Rietfontein, Gauteng, when they were attacked by unknown men who broke into the house and subsequently burgled it.

She was in Grade 4 and was 10 years old at the time. She was apparently hyperactive and inquisitive, and adored by her teachers.

She died after being stabbed in the throat by the attackers, while her 14-year-old cousin was in a critical condition and rushed to hospital. She survived the attack.

Mihle and her two brothers had been sent to keep her cousin Khetiwe company, so her grandmother could do errands, but the boys left for a while. On their return, they saw the unidentified men in the house, who chased them away. They called their grandmother but when they all returned, the burglars brought Khetiwe out and fled while the family was attending to Khetiwe. They only found Mihle’s body later.

Nogayisa was a successful businesswoman who ran her own trucking business. She had worked as a teacher before deciding to start a trucking business, which is very male-dominated. Her friends recognised her hard work and desire to build an empire and a legacy for her children and grandchildren.

She and her son had gone to collect a truck from their mechanic, who apparently did not want to show them the truck. Nogayisa called her daughter and told her that their mechanic was ‘giving them stories’ and that was the last the family heard from them.

The following day, their bodies were found in a field, with multiple stab wounds to their necks and heads. The family this had to deal with the shock of a double murder, as well as losing the lead players in their company business.

A week later the mechanic was arrested by the police for the murders.

Masixole was a hairdresser in Gqeberha and was 28 years old at the time of his death. His death was one of a string of horrendous crimes which were carried out against the LGBTQIA+ community ion 2021, with gruesome murders being perpetrated at regular intervals.

Masixole’s body was found on a street In Kwazakhele after last being seen by his friends at 3 am that morning. His body had been brutally and repeatedly stabbed, which pointed to this being a hate crime rather than for a reason such as robbery.

Aubrey Boshoga had worked as a flight attendant on SAA for over 20 years, and was also recognised as an artist. He had a BA and specialised in abstract contemporary art.

He had been stabbed multiple times and his body was found dumped outside his house on 29 May. CCTV footage showed a car dumping his body outside his house. 

Because he lived an openly gay life, and due to the brutality of his attack, people are concerned that his death was an LGBTQIA+ death, only one of a spate of killings of people in this community who were murdered in 2021.

On the day that Schane Bowman turned 26, on 6 May, she had been baptised at church and had stopped smoking and drinking. She had ended her relationship with her ex-boyfriend two months earlier, claiming she wanted a new life.

Her ex-boyfriend was on parole for shooting someone previously, but unfortunately nobody believed him when he warned Schane that that birthday would be her last. A witness said she had seen the ex-boyfriend in the morning at the nearby shops, wearing a hoodie and looking like he was waiting for someone. It is believed he waited for everyone else to leave the house then he went inside and strangled her before shooting her in the head, then he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.

Nandipha Phama was a para-legal working for Legal Aid in Gqeberha since 2008, focusing on ensuring access to justice for awaiting-trial prisoners and incarcerated persons.

She was 49 when she was shot by her 52-year-old ex-boyfriend. Witnesses reported that she was alighting from a car in front of her house when her ex-boyfriend walked up to her, shot her four times inher upper body. He walked away, then returned, looked at her body and then shot himself.

Both were certified dead at the scene.

She is survived by her daughter who was 16 years old at the time of the shooting, and her three brothers.

Barbara Sturdy was stabbed to death with a speargun by her son. She was 77 at the time of her murder.

Her son, Maurice Pirzenthal, owned the house in which they lived in Gqeberha,  but she had recently successfully had him legally evicted, after years of arguments and litigation between the two. Pirzenthal then marked off the days on his calendar until May 14th, which was Mothers’ Day and a day before her birthday.

On that day, he sat waiting for her in the garden of the property then stabbed her and her daughter with the speargun. Mrs Sturdy died of her wounds but her daughter survived.

Her son then committed suicide by gassing himself in his car.

Little Bonolo Marikhela was only 6 months old when her father butchered her to death in Limpopo, after accusing her mother of cheating. Her mother had recently left Bonolo’s father after he had allegedly abused her for 3 years.

The father then asked Bonolo’s mother to come round to his house so he could play with the baby. She agreed and left the baby with his mother, Bonolo’s grandmother. As she left, her ex-boiyfriend became violent towards her, so she ran away and asked her younger sister to go and collect Bonolo for her.

The 13-year-old witnessed the whole event. As she approached the house, she saw the baby’s father trying to break down the door with a pickaxe (the child’s grandmother had locked her and the baby inside her house for protection). When he gained entrance he grabbed the baby and proceeded to kill her.

The father said he had killed the baby as her mother had been lying to him. He was arrested and pleaded guilty.
 

Eudy Simelane was a successful soccer player who had played for her local team, the South African Sweepers, and had also represented her country playing for Banyana Banyana.

She was one of the first sportswomen in South Africa to come out as a lesbian, and used her status as a local soccer celebrity to foster an LGBTQIA+ friendly culture in her community.

She was only 31 when she was abducted, gang-raped, stabbed in the face 25 times and murdered, because of her sexuality. The practice of ‘corrective rape’ is widespread in South Africa, whereby men rape lesbians purportedly to ‘cure’ them of their sexual orientation. She had shortly been planning to take up a position at a law firm.

The trial of four suspected attackers began on 11 February 2009 in Delmas, Mpumalanga. One of the four alleged attackers pleaded guilty to rape and murder and was sentenced to 32 years' imprisonment.  In September 2009, another was convicted of murder, rape, and robbery, and sentenced to life plus 35 years, but the remaining two accused were acquitted.

Hers was the first murder of a lesbian woman which was judged as a hate crime and the perpetrators found guilty of this.

Jayde, a high school teacher, in Gqeberha, was abducted outside her home one morning when leaving for work. Her bullet-ridden body was discovered a day later in a bushy area outside Kwa Nobuhle.

Her husband, Chris Panayiotou, was arrested after a sting operation 8 days after Jayde’s murder for orchestrating the abduction and execution. During the trial, the court heard evidence that Jayde had been hit on the head and shoved into the boot of a car, her fingers crushed as the boot was slammed shut. 

Her husband reportedly blamed his decision on the stress he was experiencing with trying to take care of both his wife and his mistress, whom he had been dating since before he married Jayde. He received a life sentence for his part in the murder.

Anele fell to her death from a hotel balcony in Cape Town. She was staying there with her fiancé, Keirnan Forbes (popularly known as AKA).

After graduating from Chef’s School, she had opened her own restaurant at Sibaya Casino and Entertainment Centre, outside Durban. She had dreams of becoming the first South African woman to open a Michelin-star restaurant.

Her fiancé denied any involvement in her death but hotel staff and residents stated that they had heard the two arguing before she fell, and he said he had left their room to allow her to cool off, during which time she jumped to her death. Her family deny that she was in any way suicidal.

As AKA was recently gunned down in Durban, it is unlikely that the true story will ever be known.

Simphiwe was a Grade 9 pupil at Aurora Girls’ High School, and was reported missing on April 3 by her mother, after she left home to buy some items at a local tuck shop. Her body was later found brutally raped and murdered in a field between Mndeni and Naledi.

A 22-year-old man and 17-year-old man were arrested for her murder, with the 22-year-old detailing how the pair decided to rape and murder her. He said that Simphiwe had been dating his co-accused but decided to take turns raping her when she refused to smoke dagga with them and wanted to return home.

She had been head prefect at her primary school.

Demisha was at home in Shallcross, Durban, making a meal for her mother, when her boyfriend persuaded her to let him in. They had previously talked about getting married but had recently broken up. Minutes later she was dead, having been stabbed and bludgeoned with a pot of rice she had been cooking.

The 23-year-old was a qualified beautician and had dreams of opening her own salon. 

After her death, her boyfriend left her house, went home and used his father’s gun to kill himself. 

Delvina Europa was just 6 years old when her friends saw her disappear into the bushes with an adult male, in Elim in the Western Cape, in March 2019. When she didn’t return, the community searched for her day and night, finding her body two days later in a ditch behind a building in the town.

Her family was already mourning the passing of Delvina’s mother, in December 2018. 

Delvina, who was in Grade 1, had been raped and smothered to death, then her body was placed in the half-filled ditch to try to destroy DNA. The man who pleaded guilty to her murder told the court he held his hand over her nose and mouth, to keep her quiet. 

The community member who found her body was so traumatised at the incident that she had to be sent to Cape Town for counselling, and the Investigating Officer in the case said it was the worst incident he had ever had to work with.

Her killer, a community member, was sentenced to two life sentences plus 13 years for her murder. During the trial, it emerged that he had been convicted in January 2017 of raping a 12-year-old girl, but had received a 5-year suspended sentence which was wholly suspended.

Bongekile was a magistrate in the Durban Magistrate’s Court, presiding over Court G. Her husband worked in the same court precinct as a court interpreter.

Family members found the bodies of Bongekile, her 3 daughters aged 14, 12 and 9, and her husband, at their home in Montclair on 11 March 2019. It is believed that her husband shot and killed the family before committing suicide. Bongekile took the brunt of most of the bullets as it is believed she was trying to protect her children.

Bongekile had joined the judiciary as an acting Magistrate in July 2008 and was permanently appointed as Magistrate in August 2016. 

No incentive was given for the attack, however her husband had been known to bring out his firearm and threaten people, when he was angry. 
 

Nonhlanhla Kunene was 37 years old when her half-naked body was found next to Edendale Primary School on 5 March 2021. She had wounds on the back of her head and bruises all over her body, showing that she had been beaten and brutalised before being killed. Her family believes she would have fought her attacker(s) as she was very strong. She had apparently also been raped. 

Nobody has yet been arrested for her murder, and the family complains that the police services do not seem to be paying the case any attention.

In 2017, the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) found that KZN is the second most dangerous province (after the Eastern Cape) for LGBTIQ people, who regularly experience assault, family violence, sexual abuse and rape, and ultimately murder. Lesbian women and gender-non-conforming individuals are acknowledged to be most at risk of attack in South Africa.

Faranaaz was killed on 25 February 2020 when she was 31 years old. She was a daughter, a sister and a mother to 3 children.

She was beaten and strangled, then while still alive, she was locked in an outbuilding which was set alight – a truly horrendous act of cruelty.

The man arrested for her murder has been brought to trial, but the case has been postponed many times, and is now set down to be heard in August 2023.

Gill Packham was 57 years old when she was murdered on 22 February 2018, by being hit repeatedly in the head with a blunt object. Her body was discovered in her burnt-out car in Diep River, in the Western Cape. The pathologist report detailed that she had been hit so hard that one blow broke her jaw into two.

She was a wife, a mother of 2 daughters and a sister. She worked as a school administrator.

Her husband of 30 years was found guilty of premeditated murder and obstructing the ends of justice. He is currently serving 22 years in prison. Judge Elize Steyn said Gill's murder was callous, brutal and shocking.

Clodine Nuys (22) was the only librarian at the Jonkersberg library, in Groot Brak Rivier in the Western Cape. She had been working there for 3 years when she left for work on 12 February 2020 and did not return home that afternoon. Her family initiated a search and later that evening her body was found behind the local creche, bound and with a cable tie around her neck.

She was a daughter and a sister, and had been dating her boyfriend for 7 years. She was well-known in the community and described as quiet and a beautiful person.

A local man was arrested for her murder.

Anene Booysen was only 17 years old when she was killed on 2 February 2013. She and her siblings were abandoned when she was only 5 years old, and as a teenager she voluntarily dropped out of school to support herself and her siblings. Described as quiet and timid, she was discovered by a security guard on a construction site in Bredasdorp, where she had been gang-raped, disembowelled and left for dead. Although she was still alive at the time, she succumbed to her injuries later that day. 
Before she died, she allegedly identified six of her attackers, however police initially only arrested two of them, and only one man went to trial. He confessed to raping her and was convicted of murder. 

Dr Yasmin Ibrahim was 45 when she was killed by her fiancé in 2020.

She was a cancer survivor and worked as an anaesthesiologist and was also a philanthropist, while taking care of her nieces and nephews after her sister passed away. She was recognised as a strong willed, yet gentle soul. Proof of her inner strength was the fact that while enduring chemotherapy, she soldiered on, studying and working through it all. She was still undergoing treatment when she flew to Cape Town for her final oral examinations. She dedicated her life to seeking knowledge and helping others, and was recognised as a warm, intelligent, vivacious and selfless person.

Laticia was a Grade 9 learner at Graceland Education Centre in Gauteng. Laticia her siblings were raised by their grandmother after their mother passed away. The day before her 15th birthday, she had to walk to school as the organised school transport had departed early and she was left behind. She was never seen alive again.

2 Days later, her family found her stabbed, raped and burnt body in a bush alongside a riverbed. Her family described her as as a happy teenager who always made the best of everything and wanted to be a doctor when she left school. She refused to date anyone because she was determined to get a good education.

Dr Mkhwashu was strangled by her boyfriend in 2020. He was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison. After graduating Summa Cum laude in her medical studies, she had just started as a medical intern at Mankweng Hospital in Limpopo Province. She matriculated with 7 distinctions from Mayephu village outside Giyani, and was the first doctor to come from her village. She was a friend, a daughter, a sister and a mother, being survived  by a young son

“This is one of the most devastating stories – the loss of a young doctor who would have been the first doctor in her village” – Mkhize

Jallian Jamilah Van Staden, 30 was allegedly stabbed to death by her husband on 9 January 2021 in Johannesburg.

It is alleged that her husband wanted to buy more drugs which resulted into a two-hour disagreement, with him damaging their furniture.

After a two-hour argument, her husband He then started attacking Jallian, stabbing her twice around the heart area, as well as in her neck and in her upper back. She died on the scene in front of two of her children.

SAPS arrested the husband, who was taken to hospital for self-inflicted wounds. He claims that his wife stabbed him with another knife, which could not be found at the scene.

Jallian had opened several assault cases against her husband, including and a protection order, which she dropped at later stages.

She leaves behind her three children, 10, 8 and 3 and her parents.

Thobile was a member of the EFF in Limpopo, who went missing after a New Year’s Eve event. Her body was found in a bush near where the event took place. She had been raped and strangled to death. Nobody has yet been arrested for these crimes.

“Women face quadruple challenges of inequality, unemployment, poverty, exacerbated by GBVF, the war that is orchestrated by their own partners or people who are supposed to protect them,” – Tshilidzi Maraga EFF’s Limpopo Chairperson.