Nine women murdered in Ekurhuleni since July. Three of those bodies were found in a single week this month, and South Africa is now confronting what many describe as a systemic failure to protect women in a country that already records one of the world’s highest rates of gender-based violence.
The victims, mostly in their 20s and 30s, showed signs of extreme violence. Their bodies were dumped in fields and public spaces, some partially burned or left on bridges. Dineo Motapane, 38 and a mother of two, was last seen alive on a Sunday before her battered and partly burned remains were found in the district. Itumeleng, a 32-year-old shopkeeper, disappeared in July and was discovered 17 days later, her body badly bruised and partially clothed on a bridge.
Police have made only one arrest since the first body was discovered on July 15. No one has been detained in connection with the deaths of Itumeleng, Dineo, or the six other women. Investigators have not determined whether the cases are linked or whether a serial killer is responsible, though the concentration of similar murders in one area has alarmed residents and national authorities alike.
The scale of violence extends far beyond Ekurhuleni. Between April and June this year, South Africa’s Human Rights Commission reported that 569 women were killed, averaging six deaths per day, with another 1,052 facing attempted murder. The country’s police recorded 5,427 total murders in that quarter, though official statistics do not break down victims by gender.
The government declared gender-based violence a national disaster in November of last year, following weeks of protests that included a “Women’s Shut Down” march during South Africa’s hosting of the G20 summit. Minister of Social Development Nokuzola Sisisi Tolashe said at the time that the designation would help the government tackle the crisis. The recent killings in Ekurhuleni have intensified pressure for more concrete action.
Amnesty International has called for femicide to be recognized as a separate crime in South Africa, noting that 33 countries, including Gabon and Morocco in Africa, have already criminalized it specifically. Amnesty’s country director Shenilla Mohamed stated that “every day that femicide remains unrecognised as a crime is a failure to confront the targeted killing of women,” arguing that legal recognition would force the state to track and address the scale of the problem more effectively.
President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged this week to leave “no stone unturned” in investigating the Ekurhuleni crimes, calling on the nation to “stand up for the rights, safety and dignity of women and girls.”
Meanwhile, in Kempton Park, a district within Ekurhuleni where five of the nine bodies were found, residents have organized protests through groups like the Girl2Woman Foundation. Lumka Maqhubela, part of the group, captured the community’s frustration directly: “If the police cannot protect us any more the government should step in and do something. It’s clear that we are not safe, we cannot be told by the police to be more vigilant. They should be doing more to make our communities safe.”
The impact on daily life has been immediate. Residents report constant fear when leaving their homes or traveling to shops. Thulisile Sibande, 32, described the psychological toll plainly: “When I go to a shop, I have to look around. I’m shocked and scared. So scared, it’s a trauma.” Thembi Mabena, 60, who lived in the same neighborhood as Dineo Motapane, recalled the victim’s warmth and expressed concern for the young girls in the area who now fear leaving home alone.
For families of the victims, grief is compounded by the brutality of the crimes and the absence of closure. Nokwanda Matshikiza, whose niece Dineo was murdered, described the impossible task of explaining to Dineo’s daughter how her mother was “brutally murdered, dumped in a field, and just left there, discarded like a piece of rubbish.” She reflected on what follows: “There’s no coming to peace with it. It’s something that you can never reconcile yourself with, that you can never get over.”
Themba Kekana, whose sister Itumeleng was among the first victims found in July, expressed similar devastation, saying no family should have to endure what they face.
Lebogang Ramofoko, an advocate for gender and social justice, connected the violence to deeper historical patterns. She told the BBC that the treatment of women’s bodies as disposable reflected legacies of colonization and apartheid that have never been fully addressed, creating cycles of violence that persist in contemporary South Africa.
As the investigation in Ekurhuleni continues with only one arrest to show for months of killings, the question pressing hardest on communities, advocates and government alike is not whether something must change, but whether the institutions responsible for that change are capable of delivering it.