Gauteng police confirm a seventh woman's body found in Clayville, Tembisa

A woman’s body has been found in a river in Clayville, Tembisa, bringing to seven the number of women’s bodies discovered in and around the area in the past two months.

The body was found on Monday last week, 7 September, next to a mall in Clayville. Police believe the woman was in her late 20s.

Acting Gauteng Police Commissioner Fred Kekana said the death has been added to the investigation already under way into the other six bodies.

“Body of a female in her late 20s was observed in the river in Clayville next to Dambusa Mall,” Kekana said. “Therefore, this body will also then be included as part of the, to be investigated by part of the whole team. Therefore, we don’t have, it’s no more six bodies, this one will include it as the seventh body, so that we don’t leave anything.”

Kekana said the woman was found naked but still wearing her underwear, and cautioned against drawing conclusions about how her clothing came to be missing.

“We don’t want to speculate whether clothes were taken by the river, flow of river or what, but we included it now to be part of what we are going to look at,” he said.

A specialised team is on the cases

The seven deaths are being investigated by a specialised team assembled by Gauteng police. The team’s work covers the body found in Clayville this month and the six found before it, including one discovered in Kwa-Thema, Springs, in Ekurhuleni.

Kekana’s statement that the Clayville case is now the seventh under investigation confirms that police are treating the deaths as a single body of work rather than as separate local cases. That matters for families waiting on answers, because it means one team is holding the threads of all seven.

What is not yet established

Police have not said the deaths are linked to one another, and they have not named any suspect in any of the seven cases. No arrests have been announced in the Clayville death. The cause of death has not been made public.

Kekana did not say how long the woman’s body had been in the river before it was found, and he did not say whether anyone has reported her missing.

What this means for the people who live here

For residents of Tembisa, Clayville, Kwa-Thema and the surrounding townships, the practical effect is a police investigation that is now wider than it was a week ago, and a set of families who still do not have an answer about what happened to a daughter, a sister or a mother.

Seven bodies in two months in one part of Ekurhuleni is a fact that has drawn the attention of the province’s most senior police officer, and it is the reason the specialised team exists. The team is the state’s answer to the pattern, and its progress is what the families are waiting on.

Anyone with information about any of the seven cases can contact their nearest police station or the SAPS Crime Stop line on 08600 10111.

What happens next

The specialised team continues its investigation into all seven deaths. The Enquirer has asked Gauteng SAPS for the number of detectives on the team, the dates each of the seven bodies was found, and whether any of the cases have produced a suspect. We will report the answers when they come.

Source: SABC News (website), Gauteng police confirm woman’s body discovered in Tembisa on 7 Sept