South Africa expands murder probe as police confirm ninth victim in Gauteng killings

Gauteng police commissioner Fred Kekana confirmed the discovery of a ninth female victim on the outskirts of Johannesburg, triggering a formal lockdown in Kempton Park and escalating a murder investigation that has gripped South Africa for two months.

Kekana, who oversees policing across Gauteng province, stated that investigators are weighing multiple scenarios as they work through the evidence. “Investigators are considering all possibilities, including the possibility of multiple suspects or separate perpetrators,” he said. He acknowledged that while connections to a serial killer remain unconfirmed, the patterns emerging from the cases warrant serious concern. “The similarities in the cases were concerning,” he noted, cautioning that it remains too early to draw definitive conclusions linking the deaths to a single killer.

The Kempton Park lockdown, ordered within the Ekurhuleni municipality, reflects the seriousness with which authorities are treating the cluster of deaths. Police are systematically comparing evidence, timelines, locations, victim profiles, and the circumstances surrounding each death. The first five victims were discovered in or near Kempton Park; subsequent bodies turned up in separate locations between 25 and 35 kilometers away. Three partially clothed bodies surfaced this week alone.

The victims share striking commonalities. All are women in their 20s or 30s, all have been found either naked or partially clothed, and police have documented similar bruising patterns on some of the bodies. The initial body was discovered on July 17, restrained with cable ties. A man believed to be that victim’s boyfriend was arrested and held in custody, though no formal charges have been filed. Among the identified victims is Elizabeth Tsontso Moselakgomo, a 38-year-old woman who disappeared while jogging and was found dead days later after her eight-year-old daughter raised the alarm. Another victim, aged 20, is the youngest person identified in the series. One body was discovered in an advanced state of decomposition.

The investigation has drawn a direct response from the country’s highest office. President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged that “no stone will be left unturned” in pursuing the case. Authorities have announced a reward of 400,000 South African rand, approximately $25,000, for information leading to an arrest.

Deputy National Commissioner for Policing Tebello Mosikili addressed journalists at the scene of the latest discovery with language that left little room for ambiguity. “We cannot continue picking up bodies,” he said. Women in surrounding areas have been advised to exercise extreme caution and avoid traveling alone.

By contrast, the institutional response, however urgent, is unfolding against a backdrop of systemic failure that long predates these killings. South Africa carries one of the world’s highest femicide rates, according to the United Nations. Between January and March 2026, South African police recorded 9,782 reported rapes alongside 12,590 sexual offences, averaging roughly 108 reported rapes daily. Nearly half of those reported rapes (47.2 percent) occurred in the home of either the victim or the perpetrator. A 2022 study by a South African think tank found that more than 35 percent of South African adult women have experienced physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives.

In November of the previous year, South Africa’s National Disaster Management Centre formally classified gender-based violence and femicide as a national disaster, a designation reached after sustained advocacy by civil society organizations. That classification carries regulatory and resource implications, and the question now facing oversight bodies and the South African Police Service alike is whether the institutional machinery activated by that declaration is equal to the scale of the crisis it was meant to address.

Further details about the investigation are available at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/17/ninth-womans-body-found-as-south-africa-probes-series-of-killings.