Two teenage girls were found dead near the circuit offices of the department of education in the Eastern Cape, according to the municipality.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Ntabankulu local municipality said the bodies of the two unidentified girls were found dumped in a bush with visible strangle rope marks.
“The two young ladies, seemingly in their teenage years, were found naked with no trace of their clothing items. They have not yet been identified and their bodies have been taken by the forensic unit,” said the municipality.
The gruesome discovery follows the arrest of a school principal in the same area earlier in June after the alleged rape of a grade 12 learner in his office. In April, a 15-year-old from Mount Ayliff, also a nearby town, was raped and her eyes gouged out.
Ntabankulu local municipality mayor Tsileng Sobuthongo has spoken out against the continuous acts of gender-based violence in the area, and called on the law-enforcement agencies to leave no stone unturned in their search for the perpetrators.
“The law-enforcement authorities must take all the relevant evidence, including DNA samples. I am [also] pleading with the community members who may have leads on the case to not hesitate to come forward to the relevant authorities to assist in the case,” said Sobuthongo.
The motive behind the murder of the two girls is still unknown. The police could not be reached for comment at the time of publishing.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
