Nine Ekurhuleni women found dead as police pursue one person of interest

Nine women have been found dead in and around Ekurhuleni over recent months, and police have confirmed that only four of them have been positively identified. Five still have no names, and the families of those five are waiting to hear whether someone is looking for them.

The first five women were found over two months in and around Kempton Park. Nqobile Mahlangu is identified as the first woman found dead there. The investigation widened this week after police confirmed that the body of a woman found in KwaThema, Springs, and identified as Dineo Motapane, has been included, along with the body of another woman found near Clayville on September 7.

Police have not established that the cases are connected. They are considering several possibilities, including one perpetrator, more than one, copycat crimes or unrelated incidents, and have asked the public not to treat talk of a serial killer as settled fact.

Among the women whose deaths form part of the investigation is Itumeleng Kekana, 32, originally from Qwa Qwa. She disappeared in Kempton Park on July 17. Her family searched for her until her body was found near Great North Road in Pomona on August 3, with multiple stab wounds, and police registered a murder case. She leaves a 14-year-old daughter who is now living with her grandparents.

A family at the Germiston mortuary

Elizabeth Moselakgomo, 38, known as Tsontso, went for a run after work and did not come home. By about 6.30pm her eight-year-old daughter realised something was wrong and raised the alarm with the family. Days later the family stood at the Germiston mortuary to identify her body.

She was a mother, a daughter, a sister, a churchgoer and a runner. She worked as a centre manager at Festival Mall and sang in the ZCC choir. Her uncle, Lieutenant-Colonel Andries Matlaila, described her as the glue of the family. Her family is waiting for the post-mortem and the other investigative processes before she can be taken home to Mpumalanga.

For women living in the affected areas, the uncertainty has changed how they move through their own neighbourhoods. Rhodesfield resident Siyamthanda Msomi described the situation as nerve-wracking and said she had stopped walking alone, trying instead to have someone accompany her to work and back.

The fear has reached the running community. Runners in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni have been wearing black and dedicating distances to women who have been killed. With Sole founder Tumi Sole said residents became aware of some of the earlier deaths only after Tsontso disappeared. At the very least, a warning should have been sent out, he said.

What the police have put in place

Police have brought together detectives, intelligence officers, forensic specialists, tracking teams, K9 units and search-and-rescue resources. The South African Police Service is working with the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department to increase visibility in the affected areas.

Deputy national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Tebello Mosikili said there would be more boots on the ground, and warned whoever might be responsible that their days are numbered. This is not a threat, it is a fact, she said.

Police have confirmed they are pursuing a person of interest in connection with the investigation. They have not disclosed the person’s identity or which cases that person may be linked to. They have also encouraged women to avoid isolated areas, to walk or run in groups, to tell someone where they are going and to keep their phones close.

“Someone saw something,” Kekana said, in an appeal for information.

The declaration, and what it has to deliver

South Africa declared gender-based violence and femicide a National Disaster in November 2025. Women For Change founder Sabrina Walter said that declaration should mean a response that begins before women are killed. Women were already dying before the country started watching, she said. She said women cannot be vigilant enough to compensate for institutional failure, and that immediate investigation, coordination, prevention and accountability must follow the declaration rather than urgency only after another woman is found dead.

Researcher and GBVF specialist Lisa Vetten said the difficulty is not a shortage of laws, strategies and policies but whether the state has the administrative capacity and resources to carry them out, including police services, social workers, shelters, courts and victim-support systems that work. The National Disaster declaration cannot protect a woman on its own, she said. Its value depends on whether the machinery of government can turn it into services that work before a situation becomes fatal.

Lawyers for Human Rights said survivors and families continue to meet barriers in the criminal justice system, including police failures, legal delays, inadequate support services and poor coordination between police, medical services, courts and social services. Palesa Maloisane, a human rights and public interest attorney at the organisation, said the national strategic plan on gender-based violence was designed as a comprehensive, multi-sectoral response but remains inadequately implemented, funded and resourced. Laws and policies cannot exist in a vacuum, she said, and responsibility cannot be delegated to women or outsourced to communities. It rests first and foremost with the state and its institutions.

The Commission for Gender Equality has called for urgent safety audits in the affected areas, covering lighting, surveillance, pedestrian routes, public transport, neglected spaces, police visibility and access to emergency assistance. Spokesperson Javu Baloyi said women should not have to be killed before an area receives heightened attention.

What the deaths leave behind

Dr Shaheda Omar, director of the Teddy Bear Foundation, said the consequences reach well past the crime scene. When a woman is killed violently, children and families can lose a mother and also a home, financial security, routine and the person who made them feel safe. An eight-year-old in that position might feel fear, dread, anxiety and abandonment at once, and might even believe she did something wrong. One cannot put a timeline on the intervention, she said.

Children who lose their mothers need long-term psychosocial support, counselling and help at school, while families who suddenly become caregivers may need support of their own. Omar said violence against women and violence against children should not be treated as separate issues. A child who witnesses assault, lives around violence, loses a mother to femicide or learns that violence is how power is exercised is also a victim, she said.

Police have asked anyone with information to come forward. The post-mortem and identification processes continue, and the investigation into all nine deaths remains open.

Source: Mail & Guardian, Nine lives snuffed as fears escalate