Police put R400 000 on the table as Ekurhuleni murder cases reach eight

A R400 000 reward is on the table for anyone who can help police make arrests in the Ekurhuleni murder cases, where the bodies of eight women have been found in the municipal area in less than two months.

Only two of the eight have been identified. The reward was announced at a media briefing on the measures being taken to find whoever is responsible, and the police have asked the public for help while saying they are not yet treating the cases as linked.

The eighth victim

Acting National Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane confirmed the discovery of the eighth body at the briefing. The woman was picked up in Olifantsfontein and found in the Clayville River, opposite Thembisa Mall, Dimpane said.

“On arrival, the police found the particular victim in the river and we are dealing with that case,” she said.

The confirmation matters because it fixes the count. Eight women, one municipal area, under two months, and a police service that has said it will not declare a pattern until the investigation shows one.

A national crisis, and what the state has done

President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared the discovery of the bodies a national crisis. Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia told the briefing that the matter sits at the top of the government’s priorities.

“The government has prioritised this matter. The President has declared this a national crisis, and I can say that the ministers who are leading on this matter, and for various programs, including the efforts of the South African Police Service, every effort is being made to overcome this terrible scourge,” Cachalia said.

That declaration is the reason the reward exists. A cash offer of this size is a formal step under the police’s own processes, and it is a public admission that the investigation needs information it does not yet have.

Cachalia and Dimpane are due to meet investigators over the discovery of the bodies, which puts the political leadership and the detectives in the same room on the same file.

What the reward is for, and what it is not

The R400 000 is offered for information that leads to arrests, not for information in general. Anyone with something to say about the Olifantsfontein pickup, the Clayville River discovery or any of the other seven cases should take it to the police directly.

The police have not said the cases are linked. That is a fact about the investigation and it cuts both ways. It means no single theory has been ruled in, and it means the families of six unidentified women still do not know whether the person they are looking for is among the dead.

For the families in Kempton Park, Thembisa, Olifantsfontein and the surrounding areas, the practical effect of the last two months is a change in how they move. The reward does not change that. Only an arrest does.

The two identified victims have been returned to their families. The other six have not, and until they are named, their families are waiting on a police laboratory rather than a police suspect.

What happens next

The meeting between the acting minister, the acting national commissioner and the investigators is the next dated step. Until then, the reward stands at R400 000, and the number of women found dead in Ekurhuleni stands at eight.

Source: SABC News (website), Police offer reward of R400k for information on Ekurhuleni murders