Family identifies Gracious Nkomo as third woman found near Kempton Park

A family has identified the body of 28-year-old Gracious Nkomo, the third woman found dead in the Kempton Park area this month.

Nkomo’s body was found on the R21. She was the third woman whose body was discovered in the area on 10 September, according to SABC News (YouTube), which reported the identification.

The family made the identification at a Germiston mortuary. When she was found, Nkomo was partially clothed.

What the record shows so far

The identification closes one question for the Nkomo family. It does not close the case.

The three deaths are being investigated in the same policing area, on and around one of Gauteng’s busiest highways. The R21 carries traffic between OR Tambo International Airport and the northern suburbs, and its verges fall under the jurisdiction of the Ekurhuleni metro police and the South African Police Service.

What the police have established about the three deaths, and whether they are treating them as linked, is the central question for the families involved and for residents of the surrounding communities. Those answers sit with the SAPS, and they are the reason the case remains open.

What this means for the people who live here

Women in Kempton Park, Tembisa, Boksburg and the surrounding wards travel the R21 and its feeder roads daily. They work shifts that end after dark. They use taxis and trains that leave them walking the last stretch home.

A body found on a highway verge is not an abstraction for the people who use that road. It is a specific warning about a specific stretch of ground, and it is answered by specific policing, not by general alarm.

The SAPS has a duty to say what it knows. Families in the area are entitled to know whether the deaths are being investigated as connected, what leads exist, and what visible policing has been placed on the routes where the women were last seen.

The state’s response

Gauteng has the country’s largest concentration of police stations and forensic pathology services. The Germiston mortuary, where Nkomo was identified, is one of the busiest in the province.

Identification through a mortuary is a process with its own cost. Families are asked to attend, to look, and to confirm, often weeks after a death. That the Nkomo family was able to complete this step means the body can now be released for burial and the investigation can proceed with a named victim rather than an unidentified case number.

That matters. A named victim is a case the police must account for. An unidentified body is a file that can sit.

The South African Police Service has not, at the time of this report, released a statement setting out the status of the three investigations, whether a task team has been established, or what arrests, if any, have been made. Those are the questions this paper puts to the SAPS Gauteng media centre, and the answers belong in the public record.

What happens next

The Nkomo family can now proceed with funeral arrangements.

For the police, the next step is the investigation itself. The families of the other two women found on 10 September are still waiting for the same certainty the Nkomo family received today.

Anyone with information about the deaths is asked to contact their nearest police station or the SAPS Crime Stop number. A case number and a witness are worth more than a rumour on a community group.

Source: SABC News (YouTube), Ekurhuleni Murders | Family identifies body of 28-year-old Gracious Nkomo, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSNM8mLjEPQ