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By Citizen Reporter

Journalist


Five women who were brutally killed in 2017

Violence against women escalated this year as dozens of women were killed at the hands of their lovers.


Priska Schalk

Priska Schalk, 29, was found handcuffed in a pool of blood on her bed in her Commissioner Street home at about 10pm on a Monday night.

She had been stabbed to death using several knives. Two of them were still lodged in her chest when her body was discovered, Kempton Express reported.

More knives were found at the scene.

Popi Qwabe and Bongeka Phungula

The body of Popi Qwabe, 24, was found in Naledi over a weekend, while that of her friend Bongeka Phungula, 28, was found in neighbouring Tladi the following day, The Sowetan reported.

Bongeka Phungula and her friend Popi Qwabe. as they appear on a Facebook profile picture. The two were found murdered in Soweto at the weekend. /Facebook

Bongeka Phungula and her friend Popi Qwabe. as they appear on a Facebook profile picture. The two were found murdered in Soweto at the weekend. /Facebook

Police said the bodies of Phungula and Qwabe have been identified by family members. No arrests have been made.

Karabo Mokoena

Karabo Mokoena, a young woman who went missing in April, was found dead on Thursday morning. Her friend, Stephanie Long, had been posting Karabo’s pictures on social media, asking for people to help her find her friend.

A mourner takes a photograph of a poster of Karabo Mokoena during her funeral service at Diepkloof Community Hall, Soweto on the 19th of May 2017. Mokoena was killed and burnt, allegedly by her boyfriend, in a murder that shocked the country and catalysed debate around gender based violence. Picture: Yeshiel Panchia

A mourner takes a photograph of a poster of Karabo Mokoena during her funeral service at Diepkloof Community Hall, Soweto on the 19th of May 2017. Mokoena was killed and burnt, allegedly by her boyfriend, in a murder that shocked the country and catalysed debate around gender based violence. Picture: Yeshiel Panchia

“My friend has been missing since about April 28. If you have seen her please let me know,” reads the message that has been circulating on social media with Karabo’s picture.

After days of searching for her, her father, Tshepo Mokoena, confirmed on Facebook that his daughter had been found dead and her body burnt. He alleged someone close to her confessed to him that they had killed Karabo and burnt her body.

Lerato Moloi

A lesbian woman, Moloi was found dead in Naledi in April.

This after Tladi residents who were busy cutting the long grass stumbled across a shocking scene of the half-naked woman who was found lying in an open space, Soweto Urban reported.

Scene in which the body of the woman was found

Scene in which the body of the woman was found

Upon further investigations by police, it was found that there were big stones next to the head of the woman and she also had about three wounds on her neck and a knife was found next to her lifeless body.

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