Chikunga visits Kempton Park and Kwa-Thema families after Ekurhuleni killings

Minister in the Presidency Sindisiwe Chikunga is visiting the families of women killed in recent incidents in and around Ekurhuleni, meeting the bereaved in Kempton Park at 12:00 and in Kwa-Thema at 13:00 on Wednesday, 16 September 2026.

The visits are set down in a government media advisory issued ahead of the programme. Chikunga holds the women, youth and persons with disabilities portfolio in the Presidency, which is the office that carries the state’s gender-based violence and femicide mandate.

According to the advisory, the purpose of the visits is to convey condolences to the families, offer support, and engage with them following the loss of their loved ones. The minister is also scheduled to attend a memorial service for the victims on Thursday, 17 September 2026 at 09:30 in Kempton Park.

What the record does not yet carry

The advisory names the places and the times. It does not name the women, does not state how many were killed, does not give the dates of the deaths, and does not say where the cases sit with the South African Police Service or the National Prosecuting Authority. Those are the details a family in Kempton Park or Kwa-Thema would want first, and they are not in this document.

That is not a gap in the minister’s diary. It is the difference between a condolence visit and the record that follows it. The state’s own advisory is a programme, not an account of what happened to these women, and readers should read it as exactly that.

The advisory sets out who the minister will see and when. It does not set out what the families will be told about the investigations into the deaths.

The office and the instrument

The Ministry in the Presidency responsible for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities is the coordinating office for the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, the framework that assigns duties across departments, the police and the courts. When killings of women are reported in a cluster of towns on the East Rand, the questions that follow are institutional: which police station opened the docket, whether a suspect has been arrested, whether bail has been opposed, whether the case has been enrolled for trial, and what the local Thuthuzela care centre and the district’s victim support arrangements did for the families in the days after.

None of that is answered by a visit. It is answered by the police and the prosecuting authority, and this newspaper will put those questions to both.

The consequence for the people who live here

For the households in Kempton Park and Kwa-Thema, the practical effect of this week is a schedule. Condolences on Wednesday. A memorial service on Thursday. After that, the families are back with the same docket number and the same wait, and the question of what changes for the next woman in the same street is the one that outlasts the flowers.

The minister’s attendance matters, and it should be said plainly. A national officeholder turning up in person to sit with bereaved families is not nothing, and it places the killings on the national record in a way a press release does not. What it cannot do on its own is produce an arrest, a court date, or a functioning local safety plan.

What happens next

The memorial service in Kempton Park is scheduled for Thursday, 17 September 2026 at 09:30. This newspaper has asked the Ministry in the Presidency responsible for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities for the number of women killed in the recent Ekurhuleni incidents, the police stations handling the cases, and whether any arrests have been made, and will report the reply.

Source: South African Government (www.gov.za), Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga visits families of women killed in Ekurhuleni, 16 Sept, https://www.gov.za/news/media-advisories/government-activities/minister-sindisiwe-chikunga-visits-families-women