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South Africa probes deaths of eight women near Johannesburg · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And let's head now to South Africa, where police have
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  Speaker 1: confirmed the discovery of an eighth woman's body around Johannesburg's
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: international airport in the past two months. As police urgently
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  Speaker 1: scramble for answers, the latest murder has led to renewed
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: outpourings of fear and grief, as well as anger over
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  Speaker 1: a lack of progress in tackling femicide in the nation.
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  Speaker 2: Another woman's body found in Akuraleni, a suburban area just
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  Speaker 2: east of Johannesburg. It's the eighth discovered there since July 15th,
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  Speaker 2: many of them stripped of their clothes and showing signs
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  Speaker 2: of sexual violence. The latest victim, Elizabeth Tonto Moselecomo, went
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  Speaker 2: for a run on September 9th and never returned. The
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  Speaker 2: 38-year-old leaves behind a young daughter. Her body was found
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  Speaker 2: on Saturday near Kempton Park, close to where the others
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  Speaker 2: had been found. Police are offering a cash reward for
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  Speaker 2: concrete leads, but stress that no link has yet been
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  Speaker 2: established between the crimes. other than their close proximity.
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  Speaker 3: We are still investigating whether we are dealing with one
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  Speaker 3: perpetrator or a group of men that are behind the
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  Speaker 3: murders of these women. Could it be that it's a
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  Speaker 3: copycat crime that is happening right here? But so far,
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  Speaker 3: no linkages as yet. And we are not going to
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  Speaker 3: rush the investigators because we need to ensure that they
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  Speaker 3: do a thorough job.
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  Speaker 2: Despite calls for patience, fear and anger is understandably growing
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  Speaker 2: across the region.
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  Speaker 4: We are demanding justice for the individuals that have been killed.
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  Speaker 4: We are standing together with the family. We are calling
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  Speaker 4: on government to bring forth solutions urgently so we can
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  Speaker 4: get to the bottom of these cases. But we are
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  Speaker 4: saying enough is enough.
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  Speaker 5: It is so sad because this is a mother to somebody,
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  Speaker 5: maybe a daughter to another woman. and also a sister
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  Speaker 5: to somebody and aunt, so it is very, very sad.
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  Speaker 2: South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in
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  Speaker 2: the world, and even without the latest spike, femicide rates
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  Speaker 2: remain significant. Despite years of government pledges to tackle it,
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  Speaker 2: violence against women remains one of South Africa's most entrenched
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  Speaker 2: social problems. As investigations continue, police are warning women to
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  Speaker 2: be more vigilant than ever.
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  Speaker 1: And Diane Hawker-Kalubi is DW's correspondent in South Africa. I
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  Speaker 1: asked her about her assessment of eight women being murdered
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  Speaker 1: in this one area.
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  Speaker 6: Well, police are still being very cautious about linking these murders,
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  Speaker 6: although they have assigned a task team to look into
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  Speaker 6: them collectively. Part of the reason for that is that
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  Speaker 6: Ekurleni is quite a big area. It's actually a separate
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  Speaker 6: municipality from Johannesburg, and it has about 4.5 million residents
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  Speaker 6: living in that municipality. The area where the crimes have
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  Speaker 6: taken place or where the bodies have been found, rather,
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  Speaker 6: Some of them were found along the R21, which is
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  Speaker 6: a major highway, and others were found within more of
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  Speaker 6: the sort of like housing area. And because of the
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  Speaker 6: vast area within that one municipality, police seem at this
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  Speaker 6: point reluctant to link the crimes. Although there are some similarities,
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  Speaker 6: such as the state in which the bodies have been found,
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  Speaker 6: most of them have been found in some kind of
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  Speaker 6: state of undress. And police are also saying that it
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  Speaker 6: seems like most of the victims were sexually assaulted. And
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  Speaker 6: that is what's leading a lot of residents to link
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  Speaker 6: it to one potential killer or group. However, the police
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  Speaker 6: are saying they still want to investigate further to find
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  Speaker 6: out for sure.
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  Speaker 1: Was this area known to be dangerous, especially for women?
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  Speaker 6: Well, I would say that the area, as I mentioned,
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  Speaker 6: it's quite vast. So the area along the R21 is,
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  Speaker 6: you know, quite a there's areas where there's quite a
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  Speaker 6: lot of bush, uncut grass, felt area that's around there.
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  Speaker 6: And that would be definitely considered an unsafe area for women.
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  Speaker 6: It's also not clear, for example, whether the. people were
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  Speaker 6: killed at the locations where the bodies were found. That
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  Speaker 6: is something that I think will need to come out
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  Speaker 6: during the course of the investigations. But definitely residents in
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  Speaker 6: that area are saying that they have been concerned about
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  Speaker 6: crime levels for some time. And one of the main
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  Speaker 6: issues that they point to is a lack of visible policing.
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  Speaker 6: They're saying that for the amount of people that live
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  Speaker 6: there and for the vastness of the area, They simply
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  Speaker 6: are not seeing a responsiveness from the police that they
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  Speaker 6: would like to see and also a level of patrolling
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  Speaker 6: that they'd like to see. They've also raised concern about
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  Speaker 6: things like lack of streetlights and long grass in certain areas,
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  Speaker 6: which makes it easy for criminals to kind of find
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  Speaker 6: locations where they can operate.
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  Speaker 1: Politicians are weighing in. A reward has been offered. Tell
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  Speaker 1: us a little bit more about that.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, definitely.
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  Speaker 6: The police have offered the first reward, which is about 400,000 rand.
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  Speaker 6: That comes to around 21,000 euros.
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  Speaker 4: But today the.
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  Speaker 6: Democratic Alliance, which is one of the political parties, large
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  Speaker 6: political parties in the country, also offered their own reward
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  Speaker 6: of 500,000 rand for any information linking anyone or any
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  Speaker 6: information that would help the police to kind of find
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  Speaker 6: out what's going on in that area. It's worth noting
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  Speaker 6: that this is an election year. Just, In less than
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  Speaker 6: two months away, we will be having a local government election.
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  Speaker 6: And that is perhaps why this particular matter has become
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  Speaker 6: such a hot political potato. Of course, the killing of
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  Speaker 6: women is both a political issue and a societal issue generally.
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  Speaker 6: But what we're seeing is a lot of political activity
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  Speaker 6: from political parties, you know, speaking out and holding press
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  Speaker 6: conferences and now issuing a reward. in relation to these crimes.