Eleven murders over a period of four years sent shockwaves through the Krugersdorp community and made headlines nationwide. Journalist and author Jana Marx investigated how intelligent, seemingly ordinary people could commit such atrocious acts in her book The Krugersdorp Cult Killings: Inside Cecilia Steyn’s Reign of Terror.

She recently spoke about her book in an interview on Radio 702.

‘You often think these weird, bizarre crimes would happen far away, where you never set foot, and suddenly it’s right here next to me,’ she says. ‘It’s regular people that I see in Spar or Woolworths, the teacher of someone’s daughter.’

Satanists or Christians?

‘Religion in this book is an instrument to manipulate,’ Marx explains. ‘It’s not the Christianity I believe in or even the Satanism we read about. This was all a make-believe Christianity or Satanism that Cecilia would create or adapt to serve her own purposes, to get people to do what she wants.’

How did Cecilia Steyn draw people to her?

‘If you meet Cecilia in the street and you don’t know anything about her, I think you would like her a lot. She’s a very nice, inviting person. What made her a magnet for people is they could confide in her, and she related to people,’ Marx says. ‘That’s how she drew people in and she knew which buttons to push to keep you in her grip.’

Marx also adds that police failure is a big reason why these amateurs continued to kill for so long.

Listen to the conversation:

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Categories Non-fiction South Africa South African Current Affairs

Tags 702 Cecilia Steyn Interviews Jana Marx Podcast Talk Radio 702 The Krugersdorp Cult Killings