Man arrested over murder of pregnant woman that shocked South Africa

A man has been charged with murdering a pregnant woman whose body was found hanging from a tree, in a killing that shocked South Africa and shone a spotlight on the country’s growing problem with gender-based violence.

Mzikayise Malephane, 31, was arrested on Monday and appeared before Roodepoort Magistrates’ Court on 17 June charged with the premeditated murder of 28-year-old Tshegofatso Pule, authorities said in a statement.

Malephane was asked not to plead at the hearing, local media reported. His case has been remanded until 24 June to allow him to apply for legal assistance, the statement added.

According to Soweto Live, Tule of Meadowlands, Soweto, a suburb about 15 miles west of Johannesburg, was eight months pregnant when she was killed. Pule went missing on 4 June and was found four days later by a member of the public who found her body in Florida Lake, a suburb of Roodeport.

She was hanging from a tree and had been stabbed through the chest. Authorities have not confirmed whether the deceased and the suspect are known to one each other. Police have appealed for witnesses to come forward with information, suspecting that more people may have been involved.

“As the investigations are still continuing, General Mawela [is appealing] to communities for any further information that could lead to more arrests,” the Office of the Provincial Commissioner of Gauteng said in a statement.

South Africa has seen a surge in gender-based violence in recent weeks amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Two weeks after South Africa ended a nine-week ban on alcohol sales, President Cyril Ramaphosa linked a surge in rapes and killings of women to the end of the country’s strict coronavirus lockdown, calling it a “dark and shameful week”.

“We note with disgust that at a time when the country is facing the gravest of threats from the [coronavirus] pandemic, violent men are taking advantage of the eased restrictions on movement to attack women and children,” he said in a statement.

“Gender-based violence thrives in a climate of silence. With our silence, by looking the other way because we believe it is a personal or family matter, we become complicit in this most insidious of crimes.”

More than half of women in South Africa have experienced violence at the hands of someone they were in a relationship with, according to the president’s statement. He is urging people to report crimes.

He named two other women who have been killed; Naledi Phangindawo who was stabbed to death in the harbour city of Mossel Bay last Saturday, and Sanele Mfaba who was found dead in a Soweto township on Friday.

Women’s rights campaigners welcomed the greater focus on violence against women but said it was not just due to the end of lockdown but a constant issue for women in South Africa, who face high rates of domestic abuse.

The rate at which women in South Africa are murdered by intimate partners is five times higher than the global average, according to the World Health Organization.

“Alcohol may be one of the conditions for the spike (in violence against women) but it is certainly not the only one,” Given Sigauqwe, spokesman from the rights group Sonke Gender Justice, told Reuters.

“It is time for the government to regulate alcohol sales. However, any worthwhile gender-based violence intervention should be a multifaceted approach,” he added.

Additional reporting by Reuters