Police: “only a matter of time” before femicide perpetrators brought to justice

Police in South Africa said Monday they have arrested three suspects in connection with one of a series of killings of women in the same area on the outskirts of Johannesburg.

The ten killings of women in their 20s and 30s in the municipality of Ekurhuleni over the last two months triggered anger in South Africa, which has high rates of violence against women.

Police have been investigating whether the killings were connected, raising fears that a serial killer or killers might be operating in the area.

“It is just a matter of time, ladies and gentlemen, members of the media, until we take all those that are responsible for the killing of women across the length and breadth of our country to justice”, Tebello Mosikili, South Africa deputy national police commissioner said during a press briefing on Monday.

The suspects, two women and a man, were expected to appear in court later Monday after being arrested in relation to the killing of a woman whose body was found last week in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg.

However, investigators didn’t link the suspects to the other killings.

A tenth woman’s body was found on Sunday afternoon in Soweto township in the Johannesburg metropolitan area.

Authorities have said it is not certain that all the killings are connected, though they said they have identified similarities in some of them and have issued an alert for women in Ekurhuleni to take precautions.

“The evidence that we have at this point, it’s still inconclusive for me to commit and say to South Africans, yes, we have 10 murders; there is 1 person responsible”, Mosikili added.

Police minister Firoz Cachalia said Sunday that so far there was no conclusive evidence that the killings were carried out by a serial killer, “but nothing has yet been excluded while investigations continue.”

The bodies of six of the victims were found in the space of 10 days this month.

Four of the victims were discovered within approximately six kilometers (3.7 miles) of each other.

Several of the bodies were discovered in open areas near main roads.