Nine women dead in two months; mothers in Johannesburg suburb fear for their daughters

Nomgqibelo Tshabalala does not let her daughters walk alone anymore. A resident of Ekurhuleni, the municipality on Johannesburg’s outskirts where nine women have been found dead over the past two months, she put it plainly: “I am feeling a lot of fear and paranoia, especially for us with daughters.” Each new discovery has deepened that dread, turning daily life in the area into a constant calculation of risk.

The most recent body was found on Thursday, September 17, when police discovered an unidentified woman in Dawn Park, about 30 kilometers south of Kempton Park. She was partially clothed, believed to be around 30 years old, and had been stabbed. Officers said she may have been killed elsewhere and her body moved to the park before discovery. She is the ninth woman found dead under similar circumstances since July 17.

Additional reference context is available at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/19/fear-and-anger-in-south-africa-as-bodies-of-nine-women-found-what-we-know.

Of the nine victims, only four have been publicly identified, each death carrying its own particular weight. Dineo Motapane was 38, a mother of two, when her battered and burned body was discovered this week in a residential area. Gracious Nkomo, 28, was found partially clothed on the R21 highway in Kempton Park on September 10. Elizabeth Moselakgomo, also 38, was found in Kempton Park last week; her young daughter alerted police when she failed to return from a run. Itumeleng Kekana, 32, worked as a shopkeeper before her bruised and partially clothed body was found dumped on a bridge in July, seventeen days after her family last saw her. Five others remain unidentified.

All nine bodies have been discovered within Ekurhuleni municipality. The first five turned up in the Kempton Park area, while the others appeared in separate locations 25 to 35 kilometers away. The geographic spread, combined with the similarities in how the women were found, has prompted police to examine whether the crimes are connected.

Police have not yet established definitive links between the killings, though investigators are probing potential connections. The victims appear to have been in their 20s or 30s, and several were found naked or partially clothed. Some bodies showed similar bruising patterns. Fred Kekana, police commissioner of Gauteng province, cautioned against premature conclusions. “Investigators are considering all possibilities, including the possibility of multiple suspects or separate perpetrators,” he said. “Police are comparing the evidence, timelines, locations, victim profiles and circumstances of each case before reaching conclusions.”

At least one suspect has been detained. Deputy police commissioner Tebello Mosikili reported that the suspect appeared in court on Wednesday and remained in custody. Police are investigating whether the suspect is a South African national. Acting national police commissioner Puleng Dimpane indicated police were also looking into a person of interest, though it remained unclear if she was referring to the same individual.

Meanwhile, the killings have struck a nerve in a country where femicide rates are already catastrophically high. According to UN Women, the rate at which women are killed in South Africa is five times higher than the global average. Between 2020 and 2021, an average of 5.5 out of every 100,000 women were killed by intimate partners, according to the South African Medical Research Council. Police recorded 9,782 reported rapes between January and March this year and 12,590 sexual offences, roughly 108 reported rapes every day, though many cases go unreported due to fear of stigmatization or reprisals.

Princess Eurika Mogane, a commissioner at South Africa’s Commission for Gender Equality, told Al Jazeera that the current killings reflect a broader crisis. “This is a war. It feels like individuals are being hunted,” she said. The UN South Africa characterized the deaths as reflecting “the persistent and deadly violence faced by women and girls in South Africa,” rather than isolated incidents.

Police have urged the public to report any information that could assist the investigation and offered a reward of 400,000 rand ($25,000) for information leading to an arrest. They have also advised women in the area to remain on heightened alert and avoid walking or running alone near Kempton Park.

The National Shelter Movement of South Africa has pushed back against framing the crisis as one of individual vigilance. “Safety messaging should not imply that women can prevent violence simply by making different choices,” the organization told Al Jazeera. “The responsibility for violence lies with perpetrators, while the responsibility for protection lies with society and the state.” Philisiwe Gabela, an official with the Commission for Gender Equality, echoed that concern directly: “We are not dealing with an issue of women who are not vigilant.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered police to leave “no stone unturned” in their pursuit of justice. He has also called on men to take a stand against gender-based violence and femicide by signing a virtual pledge, arguing that perpetrators are predominantly male and that men must hold each other accountable, challenge harmful patriarchal norms, and report abuse to police. Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi said whoever is responsible had effectively “declared war against the state” and expressed confidence that police would solve the case. “We’ll get them,” he told South African media.

Whether that confidence translates into arrests, and whether those arrests bring any measure of relief to women like Nomgqibelo Tshabalala, remains the question hanging over Ekurhuleni.