South African police announced on Sunday that another body had been discovered in a municipality east of Johannesburg, raising to 11 the number of women found dead there within 10 weeks.
Eight of the victims have been discovered this month amid a string of killings that has shaken a nation with one of the highest murder rates per capita in the world.
Police said the most recent body was discovered around midday in an open veld within the Ekurhuleni municipality.
“A security company vehicle patrolling the area noticed the body and alerted the police,” police spokeswoman Brig. Brenda Muridili said.
Information regarding the woman’s identity, her age, and what caused her death was not yet available.
This discovery comes after the body of a semi-naked woman was found on Saturday close to a cemetery in the same municipality.
Tommy Mthombeni, the provincial police chief, stated that the victim seemed to have been killed by stoning, and a post-mortem examination will establish the cause of death.
On Sunday, police reported that a man connected to the killing had been arrested roughly 400 kilometers (250 miles) away after he left the area.
With this arrest, four people are now in police custody in connection with the killings. None of the cases have been linked by police.
The other nine victims were mainly in their 20s and 30s, and some were discovered with their clothes removed and signs of sexual assault.
Gender-based violence continues to be widespread in South Africa, even after years of government promises to address it and its designation as a national disaster.
Between September 1 and 16, the national GBV Command Centre received 6,782 distress calls—an average of 424 per day, which is a 21 per cent increase compared with the same period in August.
