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

Nine women have been found dead across Ekurhuleni in just over two months, and the families behind each of those deaths are now preparing funerals or waiting for answers that have not yet come.

The names of the women are emerging one by one as the investigation grows, and with each identification comes a household that has been changed permanently. Some families are burying a daughter, a sister or a mother. Others are still waiting to hear what happened to the person they last saw alive.

What is known

The count stands at nine women found dead across the East Rand since the middle of July. eNCA reported on Friday that the victims are being identified progressively, and that the lives behind the numbers are only now becoming visible.

The cases are spread across Ekurhuleni, the metro that runs from Germiston and Boksburg through to Springs, Benoni and Tembisa, and they have drawn a growing police response as the toll has risen.

What the police have not said publicly is whether the deaths are linked. That absence is itself part of the record. No arrest in connection with the killings has been announced, and no suspect has been named.

The families

Behind each case is a family dealing with two things at once: a death and a delay. For some, the identification has come and the burial arrangements can begin. For others, the wait continues, and that wait is its own kind of cost, measured in days taken off work, in trips to mortuaries and police stations, and in the uncertainty of not knowing.

The women were mothers, sisters and daughters. They lived in Ekurhuleni communities where neighbours know each other’s names, and where the discovery of another body has been met with fear about who might be next.

What the state has done

The South African Police Service has been working the cases, and the identification of victims has been proceeding. Where families have been given answers, that work has mattered to them directly.

The Gauteng province has among the country’s busiest police establishments, and gender-based violence cases carry a dedicated legislative framework in South Africa. The Domestic Violence Act and the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act set out the obligations on police members responding to complaints from women at risk.

Murder is a crime under the common law, and the investigation of each of these nine deaths sits with the SAPS. The Enquirer has asked Gauteng SAPS for the circumstances of each death, whether the cases are being treated as linked, and what the task team’s mandate is. Their answer will be reported.

What happens next

The identification of the remaining victims will continue, and each name released brings a family closer to being able to bury their dead. The police investigation is ongoing, and the next public step will be any announcement of arrests or of a formal link between the cases.

Anyone with information about any of the deaths can contact their nearest police station or the SAPS Crime Stop number, 08600 10111.

Source: eNCA, Ekurhuleni Murders | The women behind the numbers