BLOEMFONTEIN, Nov. 13 — South African police have launched a manhunt after the bodies of two women were found in separate abandoned buildings in the Free State town of Theunissen last weekend.
Provincial Police Commissioner Thabang Lesia has set up a multidisciplinary task team to track down the suspects, the South African Police Service said in a statement on Monday 9 November 2026. Last Saturday, police found 32-year-old Nthabiseng Moiloa half-naked with multiple stab wounds in a building on Le Roux Street. Police are not ruling out sexual assault. On Sunday, children playing near a day care center in Masilo discovered the decomposing body of a 25-year-old woman, identified as Kedibone Hlabahlaba, inside a toilet. She had serious head injuries. No arrests have been made and the motives remain unclear. The murders come as Free State police prepare to launch the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence and Femicide campaign. Data from United Nations Women showed that women in South Africa are killed at five times the global average. The government declared gender-based violence and femicide a national disaster in November 2025.
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