The discovery of eight women’s bodies across Ekurhuleni within two months demands more than belated promises, increased patrols and another centrally appointed task team. Action Society demands that the South African Police Service (SAPS) account for what it knew, when investigators began considering possible links between the cases, and whether earlier action could have prevented further murders.
Women’s bodies have been found in Kempton Park, Olifantsfontein and Springs since 15 July 2026. Several victims were reportedly found naked or partially clothed, while some have not yet been identified. Although SAPS has not confirmed that the murders are linked to a serial offender, the similarities and geographical concentration demand an urgent, coordinated investigation.
“The country is told that gender-based violence and femicide constitute a national crisis, yet SAPS does not publish the detailed statistics needed to understand and respond to that crisis,” says Juanita du Preez, national spokesperson for Action Society. “How can government claim to be fighting this emergency when it cannot provide the public with reliable information about the women and children being attacked and murdered?”
SAPS traditionally published separately identified statistics on crimes committed against women and children. The last quarterly report containing this disaggregated information covered October to December 2024. The figures were omitted from the fourth-quarter report for January to March 2025 after SAPS identified serious anomalies in the data.
Although full-year totals were subsequently included in the 2024/25 annual report, the breakdown was absent from all four quarterly crime-statistics reports for 2025/26. SAPS promised that the information would be restored once it had been corrected and validated, but the public is still waiting.
On 14 September, SAPS disclosed that 17 women had been reported missing in the Kempton Park area since January 2026. Thirteen were reportedly located and safely reunited with their families. SAPS did not clarify the status of the remaining four.
The figure applies only to Kempton Park. It does not reveal how many women have been reported missing across the wider Ekurhuleni or East Rand area, how many were found murdered or how many remain missing.
The absence of reliable data is compounded by a policing system in which information, specialist capacity and decision-making remain excessively centralised. Local police stations should be equipped to identify developing crime patterns in their communities and act before numerous cases attract national attention.
Officers in Kempton Park, Olifantsfontein, Springs and neighbouring precincts should not have to wait for a centrally appointed task team before connections between missing-person reports, unidentified bodies and similar murder cases are examined.
“Local police stations should know what is happening in the communities they serve. They must have the personnel, information systems and specialist support needed to connect missing-person reports with violent crimes across neighbouring precincts,” says Du Preez. “If meaningful capacity were localised, warning signs could be identified much earlier. A high-level team arriving after eight women have been found dead is crisis management, not effective policing.”
Action Society demands that SAPS:
- immediately publish corrected and verified statistics on crimes against women and children;
- disclose how many women have been reported missing across Ekurhuleni, broken down by police station, since January 2026;
- provide the number of these women who were found alive, found murdered or remain missing;
- confirm when investigators first began comparing the Ekurhuleni cases and examining possible connections;
- confirm that every scene was properly secured, thoroughly processed and subjected to forensic examination;
- confirm whether DNA evidence, victim profiles, disposal sites, methods and other forensic evidence are being compared across all eight cases;
- review unresolved missing-person and murder cases involving women across the East Rand to determine whether further cases could be connected; and
- localise sufficient investigative, crime-intelligence and analytical capacity so that police stations and districts can identify and act on developing crime patterns immediately.
Action Society has seen the consequences of cases being treated in isolation through the murder of Gaby Ndaba. Gaby disappeared while taking her usual walk in Van Dyk Park on 26 May 2023. Her body was found beneath a bridge in Boksburg on 1 June 2023. Her family was largely left to generate awareness and pursue answers themselves.
“Why does decisive action only follow once several bodies have been found and the media identifies a possible pattern?” asks Du Preez. “When Gaby disappeared and was found murdered in the same broader area, her family had to fight to keep her case alive. Does a woman murdered in an apparently isolated incident matter less because her death has not attracted national attention?”
Every missing woman must trigger a competent investigation. Every murder scene must be protected and treated as a potential source of evidence that could solve other crimes. Every unresolved case must be examined alongside cases from neighbouring policing areas.
“The current mobilisation is necessary, but it is late,” says Du Preez. “SAPS must explain what happened in each of these cases before public outrage forced the authorities to act. Eight women are dead. Their families deserve facts, accountability and justice, not another assurance that no stone will be left unturned.”
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