Ramaphosa addresses the nation at 7pm on Ekurhuleni killings and gender-based violence
The Presidency says the address will cover government's response to gender-based violence and femicide and an update on investigations into the murders of women in and around Ekurhuleni.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation at 7pm on Tuesday, 29 September 2026 on the steps government is taking to confront gender-based violence and femicide, and will provide an update on investigations into the murder of women in and around the City of Ekurhuleni, the Presidency said.
The Presidency’s statement was short and gave no detail of what the address will contain beyond those two subjects.
The address follows the discovery of the bodies of several women in and around Ekurhuleni in Gauteng. The Presidency did not state in the statement how many women were found, over what period, or where the cases now stand.
Those killings prompted the government’s Inter-Ministerial Committee on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide to approve a Comprehensive Emergency Strategy intended to bring the perpetrators behind the killings to justice speedily. The statement does not set out the contents of that strategy, the departments bound by it, or the timelines attached to it.
Speaking at Heritage Day celebrations in Oudtshoorn last week, Ramaphosa denounced gender-based violence and femicide. “If we want to strengthen the ties that bind us, we must close these distances between the lives of our people. The abuse, rape and killing of women is not our heritage. There is no culture worthy of the name that diminishes the dignity of women,” he said.
“The pain and suffering that the women of South Africa have been put through stands out as a national shame. The women of South Africa have the right to walk the streets of their country at any hour without fear.”
Source: SAnews (South African Government News Agency), President Ramaphosa to address the nation this evening
