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Killer of the Sugar Cane

38:16 recording · EN · 1 speaker

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Brief overview

A job promise lured 13 poor South African women to their deaths in Taki's cane fields.

  1. Poverty was the recruiting groundAlmost 65% of the O.R. Tambo district lives in poverty and only 6% study past school, so a promised factory job was worth borrowing money for.
  2. A stray dog broke the case openOn 9 September 2007 a dog carried a woman's head into Shiamoya, and following its trail led residents to body after body in the same cane field.
  3. One stolen phone identified the killerA victim's phone was still active with Taki's sister-in-law in Stanger, and that single handed-down device led detectives to the house in Weldebach.
Executive Summary AI
  • The host presents the case of Tosa Miltaki, born in 1971 at Kwamajola near Port St. John's, a man who grew up in the Transkei bantustan, lost both parents by 19, worked the Hamburgsdale Farm lands between 1989 and 1992, and was convicted of domestic violence with intent to steal in 1997 and of rape in 1999.2:39
  • The first body appeared in the sugar cane fields outside the township of Shiamoya in June 2007, and on Sunday 9 September 2007 a dog carried a decomposing woman's head into the streets, leading residents to a run of remains that reached five bodies by 12 September and eventually 11 in that one plantation.11:20
  • The break came from a stolen phone belonging to victim Nosisasa Nozoso, still active in the hands of Dunis Wadaniso in Stanger, who said her brother-in-law Tosamil Taki had given it to her; on 24 September 2007 at two in the night the agents raided the house in Weldebach and arrested Taki and his girlfriend Nene, finding a catalogue of the missing women's phones, clothes and cards.17:47
  • Each of the 13 victims, aged 18 to 35, had told her family she had met a man who could find her a job in a factory or a company, paid him between 300 and 3,000 rand for rent or to secure the place, and travelled with him by minibus taxi to the cane fields or the tea plantations, where he strangled her, stripped her, took the cash, phone and loyalty cards, and burned some of the bodies.24:46
  • After a trial that opened in July 2008 and ran two and a half years through 103 witnesses and three-language translation, Taki was found guilty on 23 December 2010 of all 26 charges — 13 murders and 13 rapes — and on 19 January 2011 received 13 life terms plus 208 years, while Nene was acquitted of every charge and had to be escorted away from the crowd.34:08
Key Quote
“The promise of a job, of a stable salary, of a future on the southern coast of the Christmas Quasar in South Africa.”
— Host2:13
Key Quote
“We met as leaders of the community and with the police to end this madness. We want this to end now.”
— Host15:08
Key Quote
“if the police had not arrested him in September with all probability he would have continued his cruel actions”
— Host22:46