SAPS sends multi-disciplinary team and R400 000 reward after nine women found dead in Ekurhuleni

Nine women have been found dead in Ekurhuleni, their bodies recovered across Kempton Park, Olifantsfontein, Clayville near Tembisa Mall and KwaThema in Springs, and police are now moving a high-level team and a large visible operation into the area.

Acting Police Minister Professor Firoz Cachalia announced the response at a media briefing on Wednesday, 16 September. He confirmed that a multi-disciplinary team had been formed to investigate the deaths and to establish whether the cases are connected. The ninth victim was confirmed on Thursday.

As Cape Town ETC reported on 17 September, police will significantly increase their presence around Kempton Park in the coming weeks and Operation Shanela is set to be expanded.

What police have said, and who is on the team

Cachalia said the team was in place and that the South African Police Service had the experience and specialist expertise for an investigation of this kind. He said the police would lock down the area in the coming weeks and mobilise the resources the cases require, working alongside the communities where the bodies were found.

He was joined at the briefing by Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Sindisiwe Chikunga, Social Development Minister Dina Pule, Deputy Minister of Police Dr Polly Boshielo, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi and Acting National Commissioner of SAPS Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane.

The presence of the social development and women’s ministries alongside the police leadership signals that the response is not only a criminal investigation. Families who have reported a daughter, a sister or a neighbour missing now face the process of identification, and the provincial health and social development systems carry that work.

The reward, and what it is for

A reward of R400 000 has been offered for information that leads to the arrest of the person or people responsible. It is a substantial figure by the standards of rewards advertised in South African cases, and it is aimed squarely at the gap that most often stalls an investigation of this kind, which is somebody who knows something and has not yet said it.

Members of the public who hold information can take it to their nearest police station or to Crime Stop on 08600 10111. Information can also be submitted through the MySAPS app, and a caller may remain anonymous.

What residents will notice

Operation Shanela is the SAPS national operation that runs high-visibility patrols, roadblocks, stop-and-search and the tracing of wanted suspects. When it is expanded around Kempton Park, residents should expect roadblocks on the main routes, more uniformed officers on the streets and in the shopping and transport nodes, and more frequent checks on vehicles and pedestrians.

That is a disruption as well as a reassurance, and it is worth saying plainly. Roadblocks slow the morning commute and the taxi routes. Communities that have been asking for a heavier police presence are the same communities that will sit in the queues it creates. The trade is one most residents on the East Rand are willing to make while an investigation like this is open.

The areas named so far sit along a corridor that includes Kempton Park, Olifantsfontein, Clayville and KwaThema. They are places where people move early and late, through taxi ranks, industrial parks and informal settlements, and where a woman walking home after dark relies on street lighting, on transport and on neighbours.

What is not yet established

Police have not said the cases are linked. That question is the central one the multi-disciplinary team was formed to answer, and nothing released so far settles it.

No suspect has been named. No arrest has been announced in connection with the deaths. The circumstances of each woman’s death have not been set out publicly, and the police have not said how long any of the victims had been missing before they were found.

Anyone who has a family member missing in Ekurhuleni should not wait for the investigation to reach them. A missing person report can be opened at any police station, and it does not require a waiting period. The SAPS missing persons unit works from that report, and an early report is what gives investigators a date, a place and a description to work with.

What happens next

The multi-disciplinary team is now working through the cases, and the expanded Operation Shanela deployment is expected in the Kempton Park area in the coming weeks. The reward remains open. Anyone with information that could lead to an arrest can call Crime Stop on 08600 10111.

Source: Cape Town ETC, SAPS to lock down parts of Ekurhuleni after nine women found dead.