Women victims of insane rage

Jozi FM DJ Donald Sebolai, accused of stabbing his girlfriend, Rachel Dolly Tshabalala, to death. She was found on a bed in his Soweto flat last year. He reportedly physically abused her. File photo
Image by: Gallo Images / Sowetan / Mohau Mofokeng

A woman lay dead in a pool of blood in her boyfriend's flat, having been stabbed repeatedly in and around her private parts.

Another woman's body was found lying on the side of a road with more than 50 stab wounds; a third woman was stabbed to death in her home.

These murders have one thing in common - in each instance the dead woman's husband or boyfriend is accused of the crime.

All three men are to appear in Johannesburg courts today on murder charges.

They are:

• Jozi FM DJ Donald Sebolai, accused of stabbing his girlfriend, Rachel Dolly Tshabalala, to death. She was found on a bed in his Soweto flat last year. He reportedly physically abused her;
• Yengesen Pillay, who was arrested after allegedly stabbing his wife Shareen more than 50 times outside a Bryanston office park;
• Mario Allers, who allegedly stabbed his wife Carol at their Randburg home last year. Allers was convicted in 1999 of killing his mother, grandmother and best friend with an axe. He had been released on parole.

Next week, the trial of IT shop owner Tshimologo Huma continues. He is accused of stabbing his wife, Carla, nearly 20 times.

The Medical Research Council said last year that "a woman is killed by her intimate partner every six hours" in South Africa.

About half the victims whose relationship status could be determined were killed by an intimate partner, the brief showed.

Clinical psychologist Franco Visser said: "The overkill method [such as a frenzy of stabbing] is associated with a person usually intimately involved with the victim who has a lot of strong feelings connected to the victim.

"The victim ... might have done something seen as unforgivable."