SA's rape nightmare: Cops identify over 200 new serial rapists a year

South Africa is a “ticking time bomb”  of violent serial killers and rapists, with police identifying on average between 200 to 300 new cases each year.

Many of the perpetrators are never caught.

South Africa ranks among the world’s worst three countries — after the US and Russia —  for serial murders and rapes.

Activists for children and women’s rights said the violent siege under which the vulnerable live in South Africa pointed to country with a broken psyche, where citizens are filled with a burning rage and lack any form of empathy. 

Compounding the problem is the loss of highly skilled police officers due to poor pay and huge workloads. 

At its peak,  the police’s investigative psychology section had seven forensic psychologists, who assisted in profiling, tracking and arresting some of the country’s most heinous criminals, as well as testifying in court. It now has none.

Among the country's known active serial rapists are:

• Gauteng's Putfontein Plumber rapist, who has raped 55 people, 40 of them schoolgirls;
• The Westville rapist, who has raped 12 women outside Durban;
• The Hammanskraal rapist, who has raped 11 women around Pretoria;
• The Kimberley Kagisho rapist, who has raped eight women;
• The Garden Route rapist, who has raped seven women around taxi ranks in the southern Cape; and
• The Stellenbosch rapist, who has raped four women near Cape Town.

Read the full story in the Sunday Times