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Ramaphosa Vows Justice as Seven Women Found Dead Near Kempton Park

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South Africa's president pledges action after seven women's bodies are found near Kempton Park. Police probe whether a group is behind the killings.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised that "no stone will be left unturned" in the hunt for whoever is responsible for the deaths of several women found in and around Kempton Park, a town north-east of Johannesburg. The killings have occurred over roughly the past two months, and a fresh discovery on Tuesday morning has widened the scope of the case.

Police now say their investigation covers the deaths of seven women, most of whom were found either partly or completely unclothed. "These incidents are causing fear and uncertainty in our communities, and especially among women," Ramaphosa said. He added that he had ordered the cases to be treated as a priority, saying law enforcement was "working urgently to establish the facts, keep communities safe and bring the perpetrator or perpetrators to justice."

Investigators have stopped short of describing the crimes as the work of a single serial killer. Instead, they are weighing the possibility that a group of people may be responsible. "[It] could be that it's a copycat crime that is happening right here but so far, no linkages as yet," police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe said. One person has been arrested over the discovery of the first body and remains in custody.

Only two of the seven victims have been named so far. On Monday, police confirmed that one of them was Elizabeth Moselakgomo, a 38-year-old whose disappearance last week set off an anxious and highly public search. Her young daughter first alerted others after Moselakgomo did not come home from her regular run last Wednesday. Her body was recovered on Saturday, and relatives identified her two days later.

A timeline stretching back to July

The earliest of the bodies now under investigation was found in mid-July, followed by a second in late August. The remaining discoveries came this month, including two within the past two days. On Tuesday, officers said the body of a woman recovered on 7 September in a town near Kempton Park had also been folded into the inquiry, raising the count to seven.

Acting Gauteng police chief Maj-Gen Fred Kekana said the wider pattern only became clear once officers began reviewing earlier reports. "After noticing that there are bodies being picked up, we went back to our police stations... and unfortunately it came to light that a body of a female in her late 20s was observed in a river next to a mall," he told a briefing.

Kempton Park sits beside South Africa's busiest international airport, and police have appealed to women in the area to steer clear of walking or running by themselves, "particularly in isolated areas." The warning followed a series of finds that have unsettled residents and drawn sustained criticism of the authorities.

Anger over protection of women

The deaths have triggered public outrage, with many accusing officials of failing to keep women safe. South Africa records some of the highest rates of gender-based violence anywhere in the world. According to UN Women, women there are killed at a rate five times the global average.

The country's Commission for Gender Equality called on people living in Kempton Park to cooperate with investigators in tracking down those responsible. "These deaths are indicative that women in South Africa continue to face environments in which their ordinary freedom of movement can become a matter of life and death," the commission said.

For now, key questions remain open. Police have not established a firm link between the seven cases, five of the victims are still unidentified, and it is not yet clear whether a single suspect, a group, or separate offenders imitating one another are behind the deaths. The single arrest so far relates only to the first body found in July, leaving the more recent killings without a named suspect.

Ramaphosa framed the response as a test of the state's ability to protect its citizens, tying the Kempton Park cases to a broader crisis. His pledge that authorities would leave nothing unexamined now rests on an investigation that has expanded almost daily, with each new discovery adding pressure on police to explain how so many women came to be found dead in the same corner of Gauteng within weeks of one another.

Kempton Park killings, Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa women deaths, gender-based violence South Africa, Elizabeth Moselakgomo, Johannesburg crime, Gauteng police, serial killer investigation

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