Tenth woman's body found near Johannesburg as South African police probe possible serial killings

Police in South Africa say a woman's body was found on Saturday morning near a cemetery in Tembisa, a suburb north-east of central Johannesburg. A friend who had been with the victim at a bar the previous night identified her by her clothing after being shown a photograph of the body.

The discovery brings to ten the number of women found dead under similar circumstances in the Ekurhuleni area since July, with an additional death recorded in Soweto. Crime scene investigators were gathering evidence at the site, though authorities had not yet publicly named the victim.

Gauteng Police Commissioner Tommy Mthombeni said it was too early in the investigation to confirm whether this latest death is connected to the previous ones. However, he noted that the earlier cases shared a similar "victimology" and "modus operandi," which investigators are using to assess possible links. He said police could not rule out the presence of a serial killer, but also could not confirm one conclusively.

National concern over violence against women

South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with 5,427 people killed between April and June this year alone. Still, the pattern of these particular killings around Johannesburg has alarmed many women in the region. Most of the previous ten bodies were found in Kempton Park, near Tembisa — largely young women, nearly all of whom had suffered extreme violence before dying.

The deaths are piling pressure on the national government, which declared gender-based violence a national disaster less than a year ago. The South African Human Rights Commission reported last week that 569 women were murdered and 1,052 survived attempted murder between April and June.

Earlier this week, three men appeared in court accused of involvement in one of the nine earlier murders, as police continue searching for other possible suspects.