Police offer R400,000 for information on killers as bodies of eight South African women discovered
The South African Police Service (SAPS) has announced a R400,000 (N32.6 million) reward for relevant information after the number of women discovered dead in mysterious incidents in the city of Kempton Park reached eight victims on Tuesday.
The acting national police commissioner, Puleng Dimpane, announced the reward during a media briefing on Tuesday as tensions continued to rise across South Africa over the killings, which had sparked widespread concern.
Ms Dimpane urged individuals with relevant information that could assist ongoing police investigations into the matter to come forward.
“There is R400,000 that we are putting on the table so that we are able to strengthen our investigations and we do appreciate the support. If there is any information that we can get over what we currently have,” the commissioner said.
As of Tuesday morning, the number of bodies discovered within the vicinity of Kempton Park in the past two months stood at six with the case of Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo being the most viral.
The Peoples Gazette reported that Ms Moselakgomo had gone on a jog in the city in the afternoon of September 9 when she disappeared, prompting a search operation before the police announced on Monday that her body had been identified.
However, during the briefing on Ms Dimpane’s case, police revealed that the remains of two additional women had been added to the list on Tuesday.
She noted that the body of one of the latest victims was discovered floating in a river in Clayville, near the Mall of Thembisa on September 7 but was just added to the wider investigations.
“The sooner we identify these victims, the quicker it will assist us to follow specific leads and to crack these particular cases,” Ms Dimpane stated.
The Mail&Guardian reported that a suspect has been arrested in connection to one of the killings in July, with authorities hunting another person of interest.
Meanwhile, the SAPS maintained it was premature to speculate about a pattern and had not established that eight deaths were linked.
