South Africa 'feels like a prison' for women amid spate of femicides

Members of a women's church group sing next to a melted candle as they pay their respects at the site where the body of a woman was discovered the previous week, in Kempton Park, South Africa, east of Johannesburg, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. Themba Hadebe/AP hide caption toggle caption Themba Hadebe/AP JOHANNESBURG — Elizabeth Moselakgomo, a 38-year-old manager, mother, and keen runner, went out for her usual afternoon jog in her neighborhood near the Johannesburg airport last week and never returned. When she failed to come home, her 8-year-old daughter called relatives, who contacted the police. Five days later Moselakgomo's half-naked body was found in the area, with her face so badly beaten it was unrecognisable. Moselakgomo is one of nine women who police say have been found slain, most of them in a period of a few weeks, in the same area of South Africa's biggest city. The majority of them were sexually assaulted. Even in a country notorious for some of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world – with over 100 rape cases reported and some 15 women killed daily, according to police statistics -- the latest spate of murders has left South Africans shocked, angry an...