| Elias Xitavhudzi | |
| Birthname: | Elias Xitavhudzi |
| Other Names: | Pangaman |
| Birth Place: | Union of South Africa |
| Death Place: | Pretoria Central Prison, Pretoria, Union of South Africa |
| Cause: | Execution by hanging |
| Conviction Penalty: | Death by hanging |
| Victims: | 16 |
| Country: | South African Union |
| Beginyear: | 1953 |
| Endyear: | 1959 |
Elias Xitavhudzi was a South African serial killer who murdered 16 women in Atteridgeville, South Africa, in the 1950s. Xitavhudzi targeted only whites in the then-strictly segregated community. His killing spree caused a local sensation during the peak years of South Africa's apartheid regime. Prior to his capture, he acquired the nickname "Pangaman" (panga being a local word for the machete with which he mutilated his victims).
Xitavhudzi was arrested after selling a stolen watch that had belonged to one of his victims. In prison he confessed to all his crimes. He was quickly tried and convicted of 16 murders. Sentenced to death, he was hanged on 14 November 1960. He was the second in a series of at least a half-dozen serial killers to have plagued the township of Atteridgeville.[1]