The ABC Killer: Inside Showmax’s Gripping New True-Crime Docuseries

You can now stream The ABC Killer on Showmax, and the rave reviews are pouring in. This twisty three-part true-crime docuseries about South Africa’s most prolific serial killer, Moses Sithole, is being hailed as a chilling, must-watch triumph.

Behind the camera is director Jasyn Howes, known for the SAFTA-nominated Boetie Boer. This time, he takes viewers into the mind of a killer and the heart of post-apartheid South Africa’s changing social landscape.

From night shift to national horror

While researching Boetie Boer, Howes met journalist Tamsen de Beer, who shared how, as a rookie reporter at The Star in the 1990s, she received a chilling call from someone claiming to be a serial killer.

That man was Moses Sithole.

With 38 murders, 40 rapes and six robberies committed in just over a year, Sithole terrorised communities across Atteridgeville, Boksburg and Cleveland under the guise of offering women jobs.

He’s now serving 2,410 years in prison.

Giving survivors a voice

Unlike previous coverage, The ABC Killer gives a platform to survivors like Buyiswa Swakhamisu and unsung heroes like Detective Paul Nkomo, voices often left out of earlier narratives. Archival phone calls, diary entries, SAPS video footage, and Sithole’s letters to psychologists form part of the documentary’s chilling backbone.

Swakhamisu’s decision to show her face and speak out was a powerful turning point. “She carries the trauma to this day, and she chose bravery, not just for herself, but for other women,” Howes explains.

Real locations, real impact

Filming took place in original locations, from The Star newsroom to the actual courtroom where Sithole was tried. The effect is haunting, Johannesburg frozen in time, eerily unchanged since the 1990s.

While Howes never met Sithole in person, he did have a 40-minute phone call with him. “There was scepticism, but he was open. Then he got spooked and never called back,” he says.

A national moment of reckoning

At a time when Nelson Mandela was rallying the country for unity and the Rugby World Cup became a symbol of hope, the ABC case also united South Africa, but under very different circumstances. It brought together a newly multiracial police force and reminded the nation of the work needed to protect its most vulnerable.