Eight-month pregnant South African woman stabbed and found hanging on a tree

South African Tshegofatso Pule was found stabbed and hanging on a tree near Johannesburg on Monday after disappearing from home last week, according to police.

The 28-year-old was at least eight months pregnant when she was found on the tree around Florida Lake, Roodeport. She had been stabbed multiple times around her left breast.

Initial reports say Ms. Pule, who lived in Soweto, had left home telling her family she was going to see her boyfriend.

Police are treating the case as a murder, but no one has yet been arrested. Gauteng Province police spokesperson Kay Makhubele said investigations are ongoing.

“The deceased was found by a member of the community hanging from a tree, who then notified the police. The deceased is also confirmed to be pregnant. Suspects are unknown at the moment,” the spokesperson added.

According to local news outlet The Sowetan, Ms. Pule’s family have so far refused calls to speak to the press. But the paper reports that the deceased was seen leaving her boyfriend’s last Thursday in a cab.

The Sowetan quoted its source, saying: “[Ms. Pule] got into a fight with her boyfriend and demanded to leave. We tried calling her later that night but we couldn’t get through to her. We called again from Friday until Sunday but her phone was off.

“We tried calling the boyfriend and couldn’t reach him and that’s when we decided to open a missing person’s case at Meadowlands [police station] on Sunday.”

The social media hashtag #JusticeForTshego is now trending in South Africa.

South Africa saw a spate of murders of women last year that drove people to the streets in protests. The country is also known for its high incidence of sexual assault against women.

Between 2018 and 2019, some 2,771 women were murdered in the country while about 49,000 cases were reported as either sexual assault or rape, overwhelmingly of women.