Nine women found dead in Ekurhuleni as police task team works the cases

Nine women have been found dead in Ekurhuleni over the past two months, the most recent on the morning of Thursday 17 September, when a body was found half-naked and wrapped in a sheet beside a road in Dawn Park.

Investigators are still working to establish her identity and the circumstances of her death. Four of the nine have now been formally identified.

The first case was a 37-year-old woman found half-naked and dead in an open veld near the R21 highway. A suspect was arrested two days later and has remained in custody since.

The first victim to be formally identified was 38-year-old Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo, a runner from Rhodesfield in Kempton Park. A second victim has been identified as 32-year-old Itumeleng Kekana. A third has been identified as 38-year-old Dineo Evelyn Motapane, and a fourth as 28-year-old Gracious Nkomo. The remaining five have not been named publicly.

As The South African reported on 18 September, the deaths have drawn public appeals from the former Top Billing presenter Janez Vermeiren and from Springboks captain Siya Kolisi, both of whom called on men in the country to take responsibility for ending violence against women.

Where the cases stand

The South African Police Service has not said the nine deaths are linked. That absence is itself part of the picture: nine separate dockets, at different stages, in one region, and no statement yet that ties them together or rules it out.

The first arrest remains the only one disclosed in the source material. The National Prosecuting Authority prosecutes what the police investigate, and no trial date has been set in any of the matters on the record so far.

Ekurhuleni is a metro of roughly four million people on the East Rand, running from Kempton Park and OR Tambo International Airport through Benoni, Boksburg, Springs and Daveyton. The R21, where the first victim was found, is one of its busiest arterial routes. Dawn Park, where the latest body was found, is a residential suburb south of the airport.

What the numbers mean here

Gender-based violence is not a marginal problem in this country. The SAPS quarterly crime statistics and the annual releases from Statistics South Africa record the murder of women, and the attempted murder, assault and rape of women and children, as a standing feature of the national crime picture. The police minister tables those figures in Parliament every quarter. The Medical Research Council has for years recorded that a woman is most likely to be killed by someone she knows, which is why the policing question is not only about patrols on the R21.

That is the context a reader outside the province does not get: this is not a sudden outbreak in a quiet place. It is a pattern that the country’s own statistics have documented for years, and it is being counted again in Ekurhuleni this spring.

What is being done

The police have opened cases on each of the deaths, taken a suspect into custody in the first, and are working to identify the latest victim. That much is on the record.

The Democratic Alliance has launched a petition titled “Action, Not Advice” following the discovery of the bodies, calling for action over the deaths.

Anyone with information on the Dawn Park case, or on any of the other deaths, can contact the SAPS Crime Stop number, 08600 10111, or their nearest police station. A missing person report can be opened at any station, and the police are obliged to take it. Families waiting on identification can approach the nearest police station or the provincial forensic pathology service directly.

What happens next

The identification of the Dawn Park victim is the next step the police have confirmed. Beyond that, the cases sit with the SAPS and the National Prosecuting Authority, and the next dated events will be court appearances and the release of the next quarterly crime statistics.

The Enquirer has asked Gauteng SAPS whether the nine deaths are being investigated as linked, what task team structure is in place, and how many arrests have been made across the nine cases. We will report the answer when it comes.

Source: The South African, ‘Enough is enough’: Janez Vermeiren calls out President Ramaphosa