Sinesipho Likhotsholo has been added onto the exhaustive list of South African women who’ve been viciously killed and discarded without regard, this year alone.
How Sinesipho Likhotsholo went missing
The 24-year-old from Chalumna, Eastern Cape, was last seen on Friday 2 October 2020 travelling with a friend 78km away in Berlin, a settlement situated outside East London.
According to Eastern Cape police spokesperson Colonel Sibongile Soci, the two friends had made the one-hour trip to spend time with their respective significant others.
However, worries grew back home when only the friend resurfaced without Likhotsholo that weekend.
It was discovered, at the time, that the two girls had gotten into a physical altercation with a group of unidentified individuals at a Berlin tavern and they got separated after things got out of hand.
“On arrival at Berlin, they visited the local liquor outlet where an argument broke out between two groups which led into a brawl and they ended being escorted out of the establishment.
“As they were walking away, they met the group they had a fight with where shots were fired and they all ran in different directions and she was never seen,” Col. Soci wrote in a statement.
Her decomposing body was dumped at a Berlin farm
Two weeks went by with nothing heard from the 24-year-old. Neither the friend nor her boyfriend could offer helpful information in the search and as time went on, it became clear that authorities were dealing with a grave situation.
On Wednesday, 12 days since Likhotsholo was last seen alive, shepherds looking for cattle on a farm in Berlin made the gruesome discovery of a decomposing body.
Authorities were called in and it didn’t take long to confirm that the lifeless body was that of the missing 24-year-old from Chalumna.
“Indications suggests that the woman was murdered elsewhere and dumped on the farm,” Soci revealed.
As investigations continue, police stated that no arrests have been made.
Eastern Cape’s top cop Lieutenant General Liziwe Ntshinga has outrightly condemned the scale of violence Likhotsholo was met with.
“We outrightly condemn the senseless murder in the strongest way and we will not allow callous criminals to target the most vulnerable in our society,” she said.