(Crime): Moses Sithole: The South African serial killer who murdered 38 Women

Murder cases in Africa, especially South Africa are very common, however, the very one in context is unprecedented. ‘ABC Killer’ Moses Sithole committed at least 38 murders from 1994 to 1995 in Atteridgeville, Boksburg and Cleveland. Sithole was one of five children born in Vosloorus on 17 November 2964. He and his siblings were abandoned at a police station and placed in an orphanage in KwaZulu-Natal.

Just three years later, Sithole reportedly ran away from the orphanage and eventually began working in the Johannesburg gold mines. In September 1987, Sithole reportedly raped Patricia Khumalo. In February 1989, Buyiswa Doris Swakamisa made a police report about her rape at the hands of Sithole.

In the same year, Sithole was jailed in the Boksburg Prison for six years. He was released in 1993 for good behaviour, according to Biography.com.

However, in early 1995, the bodies of four young black women were found in Atteridgeville. Following this, several other bodies sharing the same pattern of being raped, tied up and strangled with their own underwear were found.

The media reportedly became aware of the similarities in the murders of each victim and the police admitted that a serial killer may have been operating in the area. On 16 September 1995, a body was discovered at the Van Dyk Mine. Upon further investigation, a mass grave was found.

What is unfathomable is, the bodies of 10 more people were found in various levels of decomposition in just two days. Sithole targeted black women aged between 19 and 45 years old. He lured his victims by interviewing them for a job at a children’s home. He would then take them to remote fields before beating, raping and murdering them.

Upon suspicion, Sithole was arrested in 1995 while attempting to get a firearm from a family member. TimesLIVE reports that during his arrest, he attacked an undercover cop with an axe. He was shot three times.

Sithole faced 40 charges of rape and 38 charges of murder. His sentence is 2, 410 years long and there will be no possibility of parole for at least 930 years.

Sithole is now 57 years old and is incarcerated at the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein.

While in prison, Sithole had a conversation with other inmates where he revealed why he committed the gruesome acts. 

He was quoted saying, “I fully hate black women and even if I came back to earth as a black man I could never want a black women …I would rather masturbate,”

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