With suspicions rising that a serial killer may be seeing women as a target in Mthwalume in KwaZulu-Natal, some residents have been critical of local police.
Since April, the bodies of five women have been found in bushes in the small town.
Police have taken in two men for questioning and have insisted they are making use of every resource available to catch the killer. Moreover, a task team is handling the investigation.
The victims’ families are horrified by what the women may have endured.
Nosipho Gumede (16) and her cousin, Akhona, went missing in March.
Nelisiwe Dube was last seen in June while Zama Chiliza was no where to be found in July.
Between April and August, all their bodies were found on farms in Mthwalume.
A fifth woman, who remains anonymous for now, was found half-naked a day after Chiliza disappeared.
“What happened is painful. So much so, that none of us as women are safe,” said Sithembile Dube, Nelisiwe Dube’s cousin.
“Even us, her sisters, are scared because we might be walking and you never know what the next person is thinking about you at that time. Maybe he’d also want to do the same thing to you.”
That’s one of the fears shared by the Gumedes, who live a few kilometres away.
“We can’t sleep at night; we are always jumpy,” said Zanele Gumede, Nosipho Gumede’s sister.
“When we go to the toilet, we go together. We are living a life we don’t even know. We are unsettled.”
