By one estimate, South Africa leads the world in femicide rates, five times higher than the global average. These sombre images are focused on sites where women were either killed or dumped after being killed. Accompanied by ruminative captions by the photographer, Sites of Mourning serves as a monument to the women's lives.

This portfolio contains descriptions of violence, and thus may be emotionally challenging for certain viewers and readers.

Karabo Mokoena, 2017. Corlet Drive, Lyndhurst. A woman who lives opposite the location asks me what I am doing there. The collective trauma of this community still exists eight years after the incident. Two people walk up from the path into the street and disappear up the road. Life goes on.

Kirsten Kluyts, 2023. George Lea Park, Sandton. On the right of this photograph is a football field, hidden by a tall mound, where I play on most Saturday mornings. These sites are everywhere, and chances are you have walked over a ground in which a woman was found dead.

Lia Anita Adeline , 2021 Dwarsfontein Ardent Offramp, Delmas. Lia was likely rolled from the top of the bridge and landed at the bottom embankment along the highway. So reads an article. Another human did that to her.

Magda Frazer, 2011. Post Office, Balfour Park. Magda went to work early and found her colleague and an accomplice robbing the post office. That was her undoing, arriving early at work.

Mohanuwa Kobedi, 2020. Zamdela, Sasolburg. On the Sunday I make the photograph, I can hear the church drum and singing from inside. After the body was found in the Church’s toilet, the church took down the toilet and continued as usual.

Moses Sithole victims, 1995. 10 bodies dug up. The callousness of a serial killer, so much evil, so much pain, so many bodies.

Monica Matrose, 2023. Wessels and Park Street, Pretoria. Monica’s partner stabbed her here with a pair of scissors, next to this church, next to this cross on a stone, right under God’s nose.

Soldier in uniform, 2015. N3 Highway, Edenvale Alberton. The photograph is perfect, the water, the highway, the scale. I feel terrible thinking about this frame as beautiful considering what happened here. 

Six Decomposing bodies, 2024. 13 Sprinz Avenue, Village Main, Johannesburg. It is quiet on the day I come here. The humming of machinery that categorises an industrial area is absent. There is something about the quiet, the eeriness, that says here a body can decompose and nobody can see it, and the killer knew that, and this wasn’t by chance.

Tanya Kelly Flowerdale, 2023. Durham Street, Darrenwood. Durham Street is two streets away from my house, tucked amongst a few houses. It bends, and each step reveals more of the street. Behind the houses, there is an open field, which is also behind shops. Yet she was dumped here, amongst houses. 

Tshegofatso Pule, 2020. Durban Deep, Roodepoort. I find the man who found her and posted her picture on FB. He willingly takes me to the location. We circle the tree. He notices that the branch has been cut and the land around the tree has been cleared. After the incident, a developer bought the land, and has built a block of flats already not far from the tree. Right where Tshegofatso was found, a block of residential flats will likely go up.

Two bodies, 2025. Dennebom Train Station, Pretoria. The location is behind a church. The community has been complaining about this area, asking the municipality to clean it, but for now it is still a dumpsite, and the site of mourning.

Unknown, 2021. Vaal River R59, Viljoensdrift. On the Vaal River, under the bridge, church members hold a small ceremony, right where a woman’s body was found. Against the concrete walls of the bridge, a friend notices strange markings, and he says this is where it is rumoured satanic groups meet. 

Unknown, 2019. Delta Park, Blairgowrie. On the day I make the image, a group of around 200 people walk Delta Park. And another handful, further down, with dogs, and on bicycles. 

Lidudumalingani is a writer and photographer. His photographs have been shown in group exhibitions in South Africa and in Amsterdam. In 2021, he received the COVID-19 Emergency Fund from National Geographic, to make work about how his village was adjusting after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. As a writer, he was awarded the Caine Prize for African writing in 2016 for his short story “Memories we Lost.” In the same year, he was awarded the much coveted Miles Morland Scholarship. He has contributed to the BBC, The Africa Report, Chimurenga, Mail and Guardian, Wanted Magazine, Visi Magazine, Enkare Review, Quartz Africa, Africa is a Country, and Tender Photo. He has appeared in literary festivals and conferences around the world. Lidudumalingani currently works as a Commissioning Editor at The Multichoice Group and Showmax.

Throughout November, Tender Photos will showcase Sites of Mourning by South Africa-based photographer Lidudumalingani. An essay contextualising the images by Bongani Kona will be published next week (November 12), followed by a short story by Temitope Owolabi. For press and other media inquiries, contact us.