GAUTENG – The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) is demanding immediate safety interventions in Gauteng following the grim discovery of seven women’s bodies in and around Kempton Park, Olifantsfontein, and the R21 highway over the past two months. This urgent call for a comprehensive safety audit comes as provincial authorities grapple with a severe escalation in gender-based violence fatalities.
The latest developments occurred on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, when law enforcement recovered two additional bodies. One victim was found partially decomposed and partially naked in a Gauteng river. Earlier that same day, another woman’s body was discovered in an advanced state of decomposition and fully naked on a roadside in KwaThema, Springs. These recoveries bring the total to seven, a toll that includes runner Elizabeth Moselakgomo, whose remains were formally identified on Monday.
In an official statement, the CGE emphasized the state’s constitutional obligation to guarantee conditions where women can participate equally and freely in public life without the threat of violence. CGE spokesperson Javu Baloyi stated that a society forcing women to avoid specific roads, halt outdoor exercise, alter work hours, travel exclusively in groups, or constantly share their locations fails to provide substantive equality.
Baloyi stressed that women must be able to run, commute, use public transport, and engage in community life without evaluating ordinary activities as life-threatening risks. The commission warned that the current reality highlights environments where a woman’s freedom of movement is a matter of life and death, and emphasized that areas should not require a fatality to trigger heightened official attention.
To address this crisis, the CGE has formally requested an urgent safety audit for the affected Kempton Park locations. This audit must involve the South African Police Service (SAPS), local municipalities, transport authorities, and community safety structures. Key assessment areas will include street lighting, surveillance infrastructure, pedestrian routes, public transport hubs, vacant or poorly monitored spaces, police visibility, and the accessibility of emergency assistance. The commission also urged Kempton Park residents to collaborate directly with investigators by sharing any information that could help identify those responsible.
Concurrently, the Department of Social Development at both national and provincial levels condemned the killings as callous, cowardly, and utterly reprehensible. The department framed gender-based violence not merely as a women’s issue, but as a critical societal emergency requiring a unified response from government, civil society, and local communities.
Social Development Minister Dina Pule and Gauteng MEC for Social Development, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, are scheduled to visit Moselakgomo’s residence to deliver psychosocial support to the grieving family and ensure access to necessary care and healing services.
Furthermore, the department confirmed its active role in a newly convened Rapid Response Team. This task force, which includes SAPS, the City of Ekurhuleni, and the Community Safety Department, is dedicated to executing a swift, coordinated, and victim-centred governmental response to the ongoing crisis, alongside efforts to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators.
