This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mickipistorius.substack.com
Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo, means: Strike a woman, Strike a Rock and the slogan is embedded in the grindstone, or ‘imbokodo’, featuring in the Monument for the Women of South Africa, referring to the nurturing role of women.
August is Women’s Month in South Africa, yet gruesome murders of young women leave nothing to celebrate. Public outcry highlights the deaths of women at the hands of a social-media serial rapist turned killer; witchdoctors who harvest body organs for muti or ‘medicine’; and the burnt bodies, victims of a possible serial killer, found along a railway line.
In June to July 2025 the burnt bodies of three women were found along the railway line from Eersterust to Pretoria. On 4 August a suspect from Eersterust, was arrested in connection with the body of a woman found buried in a shallow grave next to his house. She was not burnt. On the same day of his arrest, the burnt body of another victim was found in the vicinity of the railway line.
Two days later, on 6 August 2025, three men were arrested in connection with a 2023-case of a young woman from Brits who was kidnapped, mutilated and burnt for muti purposes. Muti is the term for ‘medicine’ concocted by witchdoctors in Africa. One of the accused, a witchdoctor was found in possession of human organs.
Radio talk shows and social media commentaries abound with experts’ speculations, and equally amateurish advice to the police laced with criticism, are intermingled with questions raised by a justifiable traumatised community.
Valid questions raised by the communities and activists are:
Are these cases linked since they all fit the same victim profile and all victims, bar one, are burnt; are the suspects arrested linked to all the cases, does the modus operandi overlap and is there still a serial killer on the loose? And why does it take the police so long to identify a serial killer?
Read more for my professional in-depth analysis…
