Police find ninth body in Ekurhuleni as task team hunts Kempton Park killer

A ninth woman’s body was found beside a road in Dawn Park, Ekurhuleni, on Thursday morning, wrapped in a sheet and with what appeared to be bruises and stab wounds. She is believed to have been in her 30s and has not yet been identified.

It is the ninth such discovery in Ekurhuleni in two months, and the cases are now being worked by a single multidisciplinary team of detectives, intelligence officers, forensic specialists and pathologists assembled by the South African Police Service.

As BBC News Africa reported on 17 September, the first of the nine bodies was found in Kempton Park on 15 July. A suspect was arrested two days later in connection with that case and remains in custody. Police have not linked that suspect to the other deaths.

What the record shows

Further bodies were found through August and September in Kempton Park, Olifantsfontein, Clayville and KwaThema. Several of the women were found partially clothed and with injuries.

Three of the dead have been named. Elizabeth Moselakgomo, 38, who was known as Tsontso, left her home for an afternoon run last week and did not come back. Her body was found three days later behind a hotel in Kempton Park. Itumeleng Kekana had been missing since July. Dineo Evelyn Motapane, 38, was found beside a road in KwaThema on Tuesday.

Police have cautioned against assuming the deaths are the work of one killer. Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi said on Thursday that the authorities had the capacity to deal with the killings and that the gloves were off. Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia said investigators were, at this stage, dealing with what appeared to be quite distinct, separate events, and asked the public not to speculate.

A reward of R400 000 is on offer for information that leads to arrests. Police have also appealed to families with missing relatives to come forward to help identify the women who have not yet been named, and say they are pursuing a person of interest. They have not said which case or cases that person may be connected to.

The team, and the law

The task team is the state’s central instrument here. It brings forensic pathology, intelligence and detective work under one command, which matters because the question the families are asking is not only who did this but whether the cases are connected. That question is answerable only by evidence, and the evidence is being gathered now.

Anyone with information can contact the SAPS Crime Stop number, 08600 10111, or use the MySAPS app. The R400 000 reward is payable for information that leads to an arrest and a prosecution.

Murder, attempted murder, assault and the unlawful deprivation of liberty are crimes under South African law, and the investigation and prosecution of them belong to the state. No member of the public, no group and no private individual may take the law into their own hands. Where a suspect is identified, the route is an arrest, a docket and a court, and the police have asked the public to use it.

What it means on the ground

The discoveries have caused alarm across Ekurhuleni, particularly in Kempton Park, where women have changed how they move. The area is a major urban stretch of the East Rand, threaded by the R21 and the N12 and served by a commuter rail network that carries thousands of women to and from work in the dark. A woman who runs in the afternoon, as Moselakgomo did, or who walks to a taxi rank before dawn, is making a calculation that women in other parts of the country are not making this month.

The state’s response so far has three parts: the task team, the reward, and the appeal for help in identifying the dead. All three are working. The arrest in the July Kempton Park case came within 48 hours, and that suspect is still in custody, which is the record of a police service that moves when it has a lead.

What the families of the eight other women have is a task team, a reward and a person of interest whose case has not been disclosed. That is more than they had in July. It is not yet an answer.

What happens next

Police have not said when the task team will report or whether it will make a statement on links between the cases. The R400 000 reward remains open, and the appeal to families of missing women stands. Anyone with a relative who has disappeared in Ekurhuleni since July is asked to contact SAPS so that the unidentified victims can be named and their families told.

Source: BBC News Africa, Ninth woman’s body found as South African police investigate string of deaths, 17 September 2026.