(CNN)Early on Sunday morning, the mutilated body of a 42-year-old woman was found in Eersterust, a middle-class township in Pretoria, South Africa.
Two days earlier, residents in the Soweto township of Johannesburg discovered the body of another young woman under a tree. And just over a week ago, a heavily pregnant 28-year-old was found hanging from a tree on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
The three women were among the latest victims in a surge of violence against women in South Africa which the country's president has described as a "pandemic.
Tshegofatso Pule was heavily pregnant when her mutilated body was found hanging from a tree
"As a man, as a husband, and as a father, I am appalled at what is no less than a war being waged against the women and the children of our country," said President Cyril Ramaphosa in a nationwide television address Wednesday.
More than 20 women and children have been murdered in South Afri