Mashatile condemns Kempton Park killings of women

Deputy President Paul Mashatile has condemned the recent killings of women in and around Kempton Park, and has urged law enforcement agencies to work with communities and other stakeholders to ensure that those responsible are brought to book.

He made the statement in his capacity as chairperson of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster Cabinet Committee, the structure that coordinates policing, prosecutions and the courts across government.

The statement

In the statement, Mashatile said he joined President Cyril Ramaphosa and all South Africans in extending deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the women who lost their lives.

He expressed solidarity with the women and residents of Kempton Park, the surrounding areas and the rest of the country affected by what he called the latest devastating news.

He also called on men to be at the forefront of condemning violence against women and protecting them, saying gender-based violence has no place in our communities.

What the statement does not do

The statement, published by the South African government on its official website, does not name any of the women who were killed. It does not give a number of victims, a date or a place for any of the killings, and it does not name a suspect, an arrest or a court appearance. It does not give a figure for how many cases police are investigating.

It is a political statement of condemnation and condolence rather than a record of the investigation, and it should be read as that.

What it does establish is the position of the second highest office in the executive, and of the Cabinet committee that oversees the police, on a run of killings that has alarmed residents of Kempton Park and the East Rand.

The machinery that answers for this

The JCPS cluster is where the police, the National Prosecuting Authority, the courts, correctional services and the intelligence services are meant to align. Its chair carries the political responsibility for whether that alignment produces arrests, prosecutions and convictions.

Mashatile’s instruction in the statement is that agencies continue to work with other relevant stakeholders and communities. That is the same cluster that has to answer a straightforward question on cases of this kind: how many have been reported, how many have led to an arrest, and how many have reached a court.

The statement does not carry those numbers. The Enquirer has asked the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, as the department that supports the JCPS cluster, and the South African Police Service in Gauteng for the number of cases opened in and around Kempton Park, the number of arrests made and the number of prosecutions enrolled.

What it means for the people who live there

For the families in Kempton Park, a condemnation does not change a docket. What changes a docket is an arrest, a charge and a date in court, and that is the measure the cluster will be judged on in the weeks ahead.

For women and children in the surrounding areas, the practical question is the one the statement itself raises, being whether they feel safe in their communities. That is a question about visible policing, about how quickly a complaint is taken seriously at a police station, and about whether a case survives contact with the courts.

South Africa has a legal framework for this. The Domestic Violence Act places duties on police officers who receive a complaint, and the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act sets out the offences and the minimum sentences that apply to them. Murder, assault and rape are crimes, and the state, not the community, carries the duty to investigate and prosecute them.

Where this goes next

The cluster’s work is reported through the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster, and the police publish quarterly crime statistics for each province. Gauteng’s figures for the current reporting period are due in the next release from the South African Police Service.

Source: South African Government (www.gov.za), Deputy President Paul Mashatile on recent killings of women in the East Rand, https://www.gov.za/news/media-statements/deputy-president-paul-mashatile-recent-killings-women-east-rand-16-sep-2026