TimesLIVE Podcasts True Crime South Africa

True Crime South Africa

True Crime South Africa is the first victim-focused true-crime podcast in the country.

Host, Nicole Engelbrecht, researches each case herself using media coverage, trial footage, social media sources and often by talking to some of the individuals involved. Using her skills as a creative writer and her passion for true crime, she crafts each script to ensure that listeners are given a deep dive into the case mechanics as well as an understanding of the victims as human beings.

The podcast covers both solved and unsolved South African true crime cases. The unsolved cases are often cold cases which can benefit from awareness being brought to them. This concept has been used in the US for many years and to great success. The listenership formed around true crime podcasts becomes a community that advocates for victims and resolution for families. South African victims now have their own voice too.

True Crime South Africa publishes weekly, alternating between full-length case episodes and shorter minisodes which discuss true crime cases that are currently in the media. The podcast launched on the 22nd of June 2019 and is making waves in the South African podcast community. On the True Crime South Africa social media pages, South African true crime fans finally have a place to call home where they can express their views on cases and discuss the details with like-minded people.

True Crime South Africa is published in conjunction with Arena Holdings, publishers of TimesLIVE, BusinessLIVE, and SowetanLIVE. 

Keywords: crime, true crime, murder, abduction, South Africa, police, law and order
Weekly English Explicit South Africa True Crime · News Narrated by Scott Peter Smith
316 Episodes
1 – 20

The Station Strangler: Interview with Nadine Cloete

Idea Candy and Showmax recently released a documentary film about one of South Africa's most notorious unresolved serial crimes. The Station Strangler explores the disappearance and subsequent murder of 22 boys from Mitchells Plein from the 1980s until a face was given to the terrifying phantom. With Norman Simons now…
9 Dec 42 min

Introducing...Stripped

I don’t know about you, but I really love fiction and audio drama podcasts. It’s like a watching a movie, but with your ears. So, listening to a movie, I guess - but way better. And although South Africa’s podcast landscape has grown hugely in the last five years that…
5 Dec 3 min

Episode 170 The Murder of Allison Plaatjies

26 year old Allison Plaatjies life is on an upward trajectory. She's just got her first full-time teaching post, her first car and she's living in her own flat. But there is one part of Allison's life that is not going as planned. Her ex-boyfriend refuses to leave her alone…
4 Dec 1 hr 03 min

Interview - The Fact & Fiction of Crime in SA with Deon Meyer

In today's episode I have the incredible pleasure of chatting with one of the world's most successful crime fiction writers, Deon Meyer. Meyer's books have enthralled and captivated readers in South Africa for decades and our conversation reveals how that often entails getting closer to real crime than one might…
21 Nov 46 min

Introducing ... Something Shifted

Today I’m popping into your feed to introduce you to a podcast I love. Something Shifted is created and hosted by Sean Loots who is an incredible human and someone I’m very honoured to know. I already know you appreciate real life stories and true crime listeners often also listen…
20 Nov 2 min

Episode 169 The Serial Crimes of Shaun Oosthuizen

Between 2015 and 2018, retirement homes in Gauteng and Mpumalanga became the scenes of horrific murders. Some of the most vulnerable members of society were being targeted and the clock was running down for police to make an arrest before another woman was killed (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support the…
19 Nov 51 min

Episode 168 The Matjane Family Murders

When a woman arrives at the home of a rural plot owner begging for assistance to take her own life, a tale of filicide unfolds unlike anything seen in South African courts before. Did a combination of medication result in the death of two young children? Or was the motive…
31 Oct 1 hr 24 min

Introducing: When Change Happens

Today, I’m happy to bring you a sneak preview of the first episode of When Change Happens, a podcast series about ordinary South Africans coping with extraordinary changes in their lives, and hosted by legendary journalist Ruda Landman. To hear the rest subscribe to When Change Happens on Apple Podcasts,…
17 Oct 42 min

Episode 167 The Serial Crimes of Sello Mapunya

From 2014, a serial predator had been roaming the suburbs of Tshwane. His modus operandi was so well thought-out that for five years he remained undetected. Then, a detective with a personal mission driving her singular professional focus is assigned to the case, and soon the predator has nowhere left…
10 Oct 45 min

DNA Hits of the Year 2024: Bonus Episode Brough to you by Solal

Each year, countries across the world submit their most memorable and groundbreaking forensic DNA success stories for the DNA Hit of the Year. In this bonus episode, brought to you by the lovely folk at Solal, you'll hear about the six finalists. These are cases that will blow your mind…
1 Oct 51 min

Episode 166 Death on Mdlalose Street

When two vehicles collide with a group of pedestrians four children are left dead, and two others have their lives forever changed. When the dust settles the drivers of the vehicles have a lot to answer for and their culpability in the deaths is soon questioned. (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447)…
29 Sep 51 min

Episode 165 The Murder of Alberto Costa

Alberto Costa was sure that he had done everything he could to secure his home on a farm in Stellenbosch, but there was a group of men living nearby who had decided they wanted what was in his house, and they were not going to let anything stand in their…
16 Sep 41 min

Episode 164 The Murder of Tshepang Pitse

When medical student Tshepang Pitse suddenly stops answering her dad's calls and messages he presumes his daughter is deep in her studies, but when a horrific discovery is made in her boyfriend's freezer, a terrible tale of abuse and manipulation spills out. (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support the show on…
9 Sep 38 min

Episode 163 The Wrongful Conviction of Nolubabalo Nomsuka

A young woman delivers her baby boy at home one month before his due date. As neighbours gather to help, accusations begin to fly and soon Nolubabalo Nomsuka is swept up in a torrent of lies and assumptions that will change her life forever. (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support the…
30 Aug 33 min

Episode 162 The Brits Family Murders

When a family is attacked by a stranger in their home, three of their members are shot and struck with an axe. As police quickly arrest one bloodied fleeing perpetrator another remains unaccounted for - but he's closer than anyone thinks. (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support the show on Patreon…
25 Aug 31 min

Episode 161 The Serial Crimes of Elvis Zulu

When a man is arrested for rape in 2014, his victim believes justice will move swiftly for her. The system, though, was not geared up to properly deal with this serial predator and soon multiple victims will fall through the cracks and be forced to find their own justice. (24-hr…
21 Aug 1 hour

Introducing….World of Secrets S3: The Apartheid Killer

Introducing a NEW investigation from the BBC’s World of Secrets podcast: The Apartheid Killer. All the victims were black and the youngest was just 12 years old. Some relatives are still searching for the graves. They were killed during a three-year bloodbath in the 1980s, in the South African city…
5 Aug 5 min

Episode 160 The Langeveldt Family Murders

As John Langeveldt lay in the dark in his bedroom, he claims he could no longer take the bickering among his family members, and the axe under his nephew's bed seemed like the solution. (24-hr trauma helpline 082-821-3447) (Support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/truecrimesa) (Support the show on PayPal https://www.paypal.me/truecrimesa)…
3 Aug 28 min

Episode 159 The Serial Crimes of Sipho Twala

When the sugar cane fields of Kwazulu Natal become a dumping ground for a vicious serial killer, police are playing catch-up in a terrifying game of life and death. For every move the killer makes, the police seem to be two steps behind him, and the victim count is growing…
28 Jul 45 min
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