Friday, July 11, 2025

June 30, 2025

“She Did Everything Right” But Still Ended Up Dead After A First Date In Joburg, Exposing SA’s Deadly Dating Syndicate

Despite every safety precaution, Olorato Mongale was lured, beaten, and murdered — exposing robbery gang suspected of targeting dozens of women in South Africa.

[Image: Instagram]

Olorato Mongale was thirty, clever, cautious, and ready for love—or at least a coffee in broad daylight with a guy named “John” in Johannesburg.

She dotted every “i” on the safety checklist: meet in the day? Check. Share your live location with friends? Done. Update them with a quick “on the road” at 2:47pm? Of course.

Her friends, bless them, texted back “enjoy!” — the universal cheerleader cry for first dates everywhere. One hour later, their group chat had gone dead silent. Olorato’s live location was pinging from Joburg’s sketchiest corners, which is not exactly where you’d expect a good date to end.

So her friends did what any ride-or-dies would do: they launched a full-on search party, seven of them, following the digital breadcrumbs.

“It didn’t make sense. Where is she? Why is she missing?” said Karabo Mokoena, who retraced Olorato’s steps in growing horror, via Sky News.

“Every place we went to looked dodgier and dodgier. It made me panic — I was very scared.”

And then the moment that shattered everything: Olorato’s bag, dumped like trash on a pile of bricks. Her friends filed a missing person report, still clinging to hope.

“I thought there was no way we were not going to find her. We did end up finding her but not in the way we would have hoped,” Karabo said.

Olorato’s body was dumped like discarded furniture just metres from where her friends had been combing the area. Her face was beaten black and blue. Her shirt was torn open. The post-mortem confirmed the brutal truth: blunt force trauma. She was beaten to death.

Her mother, Keabetswe Poppy Mongale, had to identify her only child. “It was like I was dreaming, seeing her body like that with those bruises and blood everywhere… I don’t think what I saw will ever go away.”

CCTV footage captured her last moments: walking toward a white VW Polo, pausing briefly by the back door — a gut-check hesitation no one would blame her for. John wasn’t alone. He brought a friend.

Image: CCTV

Four days later, police found that Polo in another province, with Olorato’s blood in the back seat. Philangenkosi Sibongokuhle Makanya — aka “John” — didn’t live to face the music as cops shot him in KwaZulu-Natal. His partner in crime, Bongani Mthimkhulu, is still out there, playing hide and seek with the law.

Turns out, this wasn’t a one-off horror show. These two men were part of a full-blown syndicate — a scam with a deadly twist: lure women out on dates, then rob them at gunpoint. Sometimes they let them live. Sometimes they didn’t.

“Within the four days, the investigating officers received 94 calls from women who were raising concerns and identifying the suspects as those they once met,” South African Police Service deputy national commissioner Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili told Sky News.

“It was unfortunate about Olorato, but others were released after being robbed.”

Unfortunate. That’s one word for it.

Image: Social Media

One survivor, a 24-year-old student, said she was glad “John” was killed, but still fears for her life.

“As women, we are not even safe anymore — we can’t even walk freely.

“The moment you leave your house you wonder if you will make it back alive. I don’t feel comfortable walking around the street. I leave the house and then turn back.

“Even when I’m home, I still don’t feel safe and always want to keep myself locked indoors,” she says with a shaky voice – choosing to remain anonymous.

She later met other women who’d narrowly escaped the same trap.

“This other girl was surprised because we went through the exact same situation. They also approached her with the same tactic — ‘let me take you out to lunch to get to know you’ — only for her to be robbed.”

This isn’t rare. This is South Africa, where femicide stats are a national disgrace. Fifteen women are murdered per day. Over 5,500 women were killed last year — a 33.8% rise.

“South Africa has six times the average rate of femicide — hundreds of women have already been killed since Olorato’s murder,” said Cameron Kasambala from Women for Change, an organisation that steps in where the state fails.

In fact, it was Women for Change — not the cops — that Olorato’s friends turned to after hitting red tape and radio silence at the local station.

“Two police stations that were 10 minutes apart — one finds a body and one has a missing case — don’t make a connection for hours,” Cameron said.

“If the friends had not come forward, how long would it have taken?”

Olorato’s inner circle are still grieving. Still furious. Still traumatised.

“It is difficult to process and difficult to believe,” said Koketso Sejosengoe.

“This is somebody who ticked all the boxes when it came to being careful… It shows it can happen to anybody. They are being targeted. These men know what they are doing and who they are looking for.”

And in a country that shrugs at blood on the pavement, that’s the most chilling part.

“In the purest sense, Olorato wanted women to be safe and wanted women to be protected,” Koketso said. “I think she would be very proud to know that her name has not gone in vain and that her death is standing for something — that there will be change that comes with this.”

We can only hope. But hope alone isn’t protection, and in South Africa, even your most careful steps can be traced to a grave.

[Source: Sky News]