Rustenburg - The Rustenburg municipality has condemned the deaths of two women died at the hands of their lovers in Boitekong at the weekend.
Speaker Sheila Mabale-Huma said it was important for women to know when to walk away from toxic relationships.
"Women should never risk their lives by hoping that a perpetual abuser will change when their behaviour indicates something opposite to what they are saying," she said after visiting the familes in Boitekong on Monday.
She was accompanied by mayor Mpho Khunou, as well as ward councillors Elish Mjekula and Abissai Seleka.
The municipality said that Basetsana Kgaole, 24, was stabbed in the neck allegedly by her boyfriend on Saturday after an altercation.
She was stabbed in front of her family home and her young children witnessed the traumatic ordeal, witnesses said.
Kgaole was rushed to Boitekong Clinic and was later transferred to Job Shimankana Tabane Hospital but died on her way to the hospital.
Her boyfriend was arrested in connection with her murder.
In the second and unrelated incident, well-known DJ Khanyi Ntanga, 28, died after she was shot at closed range allegedly by her boyfriend, who is a policeman.
She was shot inside the bedroom of her boyfriend following an argument, the boyfriend allegedly turned the gun on himself.
The two were found in the bedroom after the boyfriend’s family broke the door down to gain access to the room after gunshots were heard.
Reacting to the two incidents, Khunou said he was saddened by the manner in which the two young women died.
"Today we have lost two young women who had their lives ahead of them. One is a mother of two, whose children are now orphans and this happens at a time the country is still battling the scourge of gender based violence.
"We condemn what has happened and it is a challenge to us to amplify the work that we have been consistently doing to arm our communities with information, which they can use, especially women and children, who despite all efforts from government and civil society remain vulnerable."
These incidents come on the back of another incident late last month in Robega in which 30-year-old-Virginia Segope was killed after being sexually assaulted.