[imagesource: The South African / Screenshot from Google Street View]

Another Women’s Month has come and gone in South Africa and still, they live in terror.

That’s not an exaggeration – go ahead and ask a woman in your life how often they’re thinking about their safety during even the most mundane of daily activities.

The latest horror story comes out of Selby, Johannesburg, where the decomposed bodies of six women were discovered in a panel-beating workshop. A 20-year-old man has been arrested.

Here’s a real kick in the guts – the man was actually arrested in June last year for rape but charges were withdrawn earlier this year. He was arrested on Sunday after his father handed him over to police.

News24 reports:

…the father was reportedly alerted after a person at the building found a woman’s decomposed body.

“The person called the father, who rents the space in the building, about his discovery. The father wasted no time, fetched the son from his home in Johannesburg, and drove to a local police station where he was detained.

“As the police responded to the scene, they found five more bodies of women. The bodies were strategically hidden in the building,” a source told News24.

It’s believed that the women may be sex workers who went missing in the area.

Ekaterina Elena, who was on the scene on Sunday when the gruesome discoveries were made, saw the body of one of the victims who had been tied up.

She spoke with News24:

“I will forever have the image of her black ballet pumps and pink phone cover next to a dirty broom in a wet pile on the floor, still mixed with her blood and condoms… We need to, as a country, put pressure on the police to identify these women so their families can have peace,” she said.

The suspect, who cannot be named due to an order handed down by the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court, has at present been charged with just one murder.

Police initially reported that he had been charged with six murders but a spokesperson for the NPA said they only have evidence linking him to one.

Investigations into the other five murders are ongoing and the suspect appeared briefly in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

His next court appearance is due on October 18.

[sources:news24&news24]