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South Africa’s Latest Murders Leave Families Stunned At The Brutality Of The Crimes

By Jinger Jarrett
Published on: 05:10 PST, Mar 23, 2016

Murder in South Africa is at an all-time high. Sadly, there are four murders that make it especially poignant, and those four families have suffered a tremendous loss. The four who were murdered were young girls. South Africa currently has the highest murder rate in the world and is now considered the rape capital of the world.

IOL reported that at the funerals of two of the girls who were buried, the tears flowed freely as they were laid to rest. The first, Shamonique Claasen, was an 11-year-old girl who was raped, stabbed, and then suffocated. Her body was found two days after she went missing, and a family friend was taken into custody for the murder.

Franziska Blochliger, 16, was raped and murdered while out jogging with her mother and sister. The teen jogged ahead of her family, and that was the last time they saw her. The men who raped and murdered her were taken into custody the next day after they were found in possession of her diamond ring, iPhone, and wristwatch.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, a 9-year-old girl was bludgeoned to death at the same time as her mother, future stepfather, and the man’s father. Farm murders in South Africa have continued as the South African government refuses to act to stem the attacks and murders against farmers. Police have finally agreed to make farm murders a priority crime, as farming in South Africa has become the most dangerous occupation worldwide. Police have finally agreed to make farm murders a priority crime and seek to stop these brutal crimes.

News 24 reported that Police Deputy Minister Maggie Sotyu has aggravated the problem in her attempts to address the imbalances in the murders in South Africa. Sotyu pointed to the murders of teenagers Sinoxolo Mafevuka and Franziska Blochliger. Sinoxolo Mafevuka was found raped and murdered in a communal toilet. She was black. Blochliger, who was raped and murdered in the Tokai forest a week later, is black. Sotyu said that police had been slow to take into custody the suspects in the murder of Mafevuka. Western Cape Premier Helen Zille said Sotyu’s anger was misdirected.

“She stormed into a meeting with the Khayelitsha police, accusing them [in the presence of the media] of fostering racism by their failure to arrest Sinoxolo’s alleged murderers sooner. She alleged the SAPS were prioritising Franziska’s case because she was murdered in Tokai – a more affluent part of the City.”

Zille said that it was important to look at the two cases. The community of Tokai descended on the forest to try and locate Blochliger. Her cell phone was pivotal in the case because it helped to locate the perpetrator. For police in Khayelitsha, where Mafevuka was from, the police struggled. The didn’t have resources like the community of Tokai: no private investigators, no community mobilization, and no rewards for the capturing the suspects in the case.

Regardless of the resources the police have in South Africa to take perpetrators into custody, this is no consolation to the families of those who have been destroyed through these brutal acts. Parents who have lost their daughters to the brutal acts of rape and murder may find some consolation in the prosecution of those who took their daughters’ lives. However, they will still have to live with the brutality in which their daughters left this world. It is time for the brutal acts against women and children to end in South Africa.

[Photo by Pixabay]

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