SAPS' occult unit investigates brutal murder of Roodepoort teenager Lukhona Fose
The mutilated body of 14-year-old Lukhona Fose was found at Durban Deep in Roodepoort on Sunday
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GIVEN the manner in which a Johannesburg teenager was murdered and the mutilation of her body, have led police to classify the killing as an occult crime.
The SAPS has since mobilised their occult unit to investigate the murder of 14-year-old Lukhona Fose, a Grade 8 learner at Ikusasalethu Secondary School in Braamfischerville.
With Fose not returning home on Saturday, her grandmother raised the alarm the next day, which eventually led to the teenager's mutilated body being discovered in an open field near Durban Deep, Roodepoort, on the same day.
The 14-year-old Lukhona Fose, a Grade 8 learner at Ikusasalethu Secondary School in Braamfischerville, Joburg was brutally murdered and her mutilated body was found on Sunday.
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Dr Polly Boshielo, the Deputy Minister of Police, revealed the gruesome details surrounding Lukhona's death, disclosing that her genitalia had been removed by the assailants.
In a statement, Boshielo lamented the alarming frequency of violence against women and children in South Africa, stating, “It cannot be business as usual when women are attacked and killed on a weekly basis. It cannot be normal when a 14-year-old girl’s private part is mutilated and removed.”
As investigations unfold, the SAPS occult unit is examining the possibility of hate or ritual crime motives behind Lukhona’s murder. “There are two possibilities,” Boshielo noted. “It could be that Lukhona was targeted for her sexuality, making it a hate crime, or her body parts were mutilated for muthi purposes.”
The situation has garnered the attention of criminologist Prof Kholofelo Rakubu from the Tshwane University of Technology, who offered insights into the nature of occult crimes in South Africa. She explained that signs typically associated with occult activities are searched for at crime scenes, such as missing body parts. “A body part must be missing,” Rakubu explained.
Rakubu also highlighted the difficulty in apprehending those responsible for occult crimes, stating that these perpetrators often possess a level of professionalism that allows them to evade capture.
“You have not heard of a situation where perpetrators of an occult crime were seen doing it. They are rational thinkers, they take time to pounce on their unsuspecting victims.”
This predation often occurs away from public spaces, allowing them to dispose of bodies discreetly.
However, Rakubu warned against conflating occult crimes with those committed by individuals suffering from severe mental illness. “Sometimes a mentally disturbed person would do the crime in the same manner,” she noted, “but detectives in the occult unit are trained to differentiate between psychotic and occult killings.”
Moreover, characteristics of occult killers can include behaviours that appear normal on the surface, with some engaging in “entrepreneurial” activities involving the exchange of body parts for personal gain.
Rakubu emphasised the generational nature of occult practices, often rooted in specific cultural beliefs that propagate through families. “It is transmitted from one generation to another. Occult crime is generational,” she said.
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