A memorial has been erected in the township of Shayamoya in Umzinto, not far from Pennington.
It stands to remember the 13 women who were murdered by serial killer Thozamile Taki, dubbed the Sugarcane Killer.
South Coast readers might remember this case as it took place so close to home.
Unemployment is a serious issue in the country but for some South African serial killers, unemployment forms part of their modus operandi.
The Umzinto community was sent into a state of shock on September 9, 2007, when a dog was seen carrying a woman’s head.
Soon after another body was found. Within days more bodies were found in the sugarcane fields.
A serial killer was on the loose.
The Port Shepstone Organised Crime Unit assembled a task team, and forensic experts were flown in from Pretoria.
The victim profile showed that the victims were female, between the ages of 18 and 25 years old, and all were looking for work when they went missing.
Most of the bodies were burnt or badly decomposed. Some were found only 15m apart.
Identifying these victims proved difficult – if it had not been for the fact that they carried IDs and CVs with them, it probably would have been nigh on impossible.
A break in the case came when a woman told police that she was about to go with a man in a taxi to Shayamoya but at the last moment, decided not to go with him.
She provided an identikit of this ‘job recruiter’.
Another vital piece of information was that the victims were stripped of their clothes, cash, and cellphones, and this is how the Sugarcane Killer was apprehended.
Police used cellphone experts to trace one of the victim’s cellphones to Taki’s sister-in-law. She would lead the police to him.
Taki and his girlfriend at the time were arrested on September 24, 2007.
Inside their home, police found cellphones and clothing that belonged to the victims.
Eleven bodies were found in Umzinto, but it turns out Taki also terrorised the community of Port St John’s, where another two murders were connected to him.
He was charged with 13 counts of murder and 13 counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances.
It was suspected that these victims were raped, but due to the condition of their bodies, the state was unable to prove this.
Taki was found guilty on all charges. The judge described Taki as callous and insensitive.
Taki’s girlfriend was found not guilty.
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