South African police said Sunday that another woman’s body had been found in a municipality east of Johannesburg, bringing to 11 the number of women discovered dead in the area over the past 10 weeks.
Eight of the victims have been found this month alone, in a series of killings that has heightened concern in a country with one of the world’s highest murder rates per capita.
The latest body was discovered around midday in an open area in the Ekurhuleni municipality, police said.
“A security company vehicle patrolling the area noticed the body and alerted the police,” police spokeswoman Brigadier Brenda Muridili said.
The identity and age of the woman, as well as the cause of her death, were not immediately known.
The discovery came a day after the body of a semi-naked woman was found near a cemetery in the same municipality.
Provincial police chief Tommy Mthombeni said the woman appeared to have been stoned to death, adding that a post-mortem examination would determine the exact cause of death.
Police said Sunday that a man linked to the killing had been arrested nearly 400 kilometres (250 miles) away after leaving the area.
The arrest brings to four the number of people currently in police custody in connection with the killings.
Police have stressed that the cases have not been linked.
The nine other victims were mostly in their 20s and 30s. Some were found stripped of their clothes and showed signs of sexual assault.
Gender-based violence remains widespread in South Africa despite years of government pledges to address the problem, which authorities have declared a national crisis.
The national Gender-Based Violence Command Centre received 6,782 distress calls between September 1 and 16, an average of 424 calls a day and a 21 percent increase from the same period in August.
AFP
